Derivs - People and Markets

A rapidly approaching deadline for the mandatory clearing of onshore CNY interest rate swaps (IRS) threatens market access for a number of large international banks. Earlier this week the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) detailed China's latest targeted easing move, but the rates market kept its focus on recent strong data, writes Maia Ririnui of Total Derivatives.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s text on non-modellable risk factors is too prescriptive and rigid, and could prevent the appropriate use of data, according to a number of industry associations.

Turnover in listed structured products on European exchanges increased in the first quarter of 2014, with trading volume up 25.4% to €33.4 billion, according to the European Structured Investment Products Association.

Trad-X, the interest rate swaps trading platform run by Tradition, has hit record trading volumes for dollar IRS, with volumes exceeding $290 billion since the inception of $ products in February 2013.

Edward Smalley, iTraxx options trader at Barclays in London, has left the firm.

The bid/offer spread has significantly contracted since US regulation requiring certain products to be traded on swap execution facilities became effective. UBS’ aggregation model Neo has seen spreads decrease on its SEF electronic order books by approximately 50%.

Jeff Micsky has been appointed global derivatives head at JonesTrading Institutional Services, based in San Francisco.

Joseph McIntyre, senior high yield credit analyst at Nomura in London, has left the firm. He is said to be heading to Bluecrest.

A significant number of senior buy- and sellside participants think that the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II will have a negative impact upon liquidity, according to a survey conducted by MarketAxess and Trax.

Investors have been picking up short-dated options on the euro against the dollar ahead of the European Central Bank meeting, due to take place Thursday.

Jos Dijsselhof, ex-general manager group hubs at Australia and New Zealand Bank in Singapore, is set to join Euronext as chief operating officer in Amsterdam.

Tim Reilly, head of North American electronic execution sales at Citigroup in New York, has left the firm.