Derivs - People and Markets

The Singapore Exchange will likely share its clearing technology and expertise with the Korea Exchange, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of over-the-counter derivative clearing.

Uptake of client clearing of over-the-counter derivatives in the Asia region will be much slower than Europe and the U.S. due to lack of certainty over when mandatory client clearing will start in each region.

Regulatory proposals surrounding margin requirements for non-cleared derivatives may increase risk, hamper economic growth and result in the implementation of unsuitable hedges by market participants.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has landed approval as Japan’s first third party-trade repository, as the Japan Financial Services Agency moves to implement an April 1 deadline for the reporting of over-the-counter derivative trades.

Credit Suisse has launched tracker certificates linked to an actively managed notional variable weight and composition total return portfolio that is long a basket of between 15 to 20 shares in Asia Pacific—pitched by the firm as a dragon basket.

Benchmark-setting rules should apply to strategy and proprietary indices, as well as the widely-used benchmarks and indices already targeted by European regulators, according to the influential Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group.

Hedge funds are looking to trade the April-June S&P500 future roll through jelly rolls in an attempt to profit from future increased roll costs on the back of growing dislocation between the two expirations. Funds are considering the trade now as the March-June roll has widened significantly over recent days.

Foreign investment firms and local banks based in the Philippines have until May to start complying with new limits on their Philippine peso non-deliverable forward exposure.

Elie Scemama, the ex-head of equity derivative hedge fund sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at UBS in London, has launched an interdealer brokerage firm—Square Global Markets—in London.

The proposed requirements on loss allocations arrangements for central counterparties to cover non-default losses may put U.K. CCPs at a significant disadvantage to their European and U.S. competitors.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission is allowing participants in the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors program to trade stock-index futures.

Registered swap dealers can now report over-the-counter trades for all five major asset classes to the DTCC Data Repository in the U.S., making it the first swap data repository to offer reporting across all asset classes.