Derivs - People and Markets

The Financial Services Authority is seeking comments on its proposed approach to enacting recent government policy for the regulation of interest rate benchmarks, particularly the London interbank offered rate.

Ian White, head of fx options for the Americas at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Stamford, Conn., has joined Nomura in New York in a similar role. He has been replaced at RBS by Salvatore Rubino, former head of fx derivatives at MF Global, which he left a little over a year ago.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is expected to exempt regions from compliance to segments of the Dodd-Frank Act and will issue further no-action letters on the back of international pressure not to move too quickly with implementation of reforms, according to industry lobbyists.

Firms are expected to up their exchange-traded fund issuance in the Philippines in the coming year, as banks prepare deals following recent regulatory guidance from the country’s chief regulator.

Faisal Butt, head of euro swaps trading at Morgan Stanley in London, has joined Brevan Howard, also in London.

Oleg Grishin, v.p. in exotic fx options trading at Credit Suisse in Singapore, has left the firm.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has found widespread client money handling weaknesses among contracts for difference and margin fx derivatives brokers.

Jakub Kaplan, exotic interest rates trader at UBS in London, has joined Citigroup in a similar role, also in London.

Ian White, head of fx options for the Americas at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Stamford, Conn., has joined Nomura as managing director and senior fx options trader for the Americas, based in New York.

Amundi Investment Solutions has replaced Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank with BNP Paribas as the main market maker for its equity exchange-traded funds and as the single swap counterparty for its equity and commodity ETFs. The decision by Amundi is a big coup for BNP, according to structurers, citing Amundi as one of the biggest providers of ETFs in Europe, with its largest ETF affected sitting at USD1.07 billion.

Citigroup is looking to focus more on systematic volatility products next year as investors look away from asset classes such as equities and real estate and increasingly opt for other underlying.

Ex-UBS global head of collateralized loan obligation trading Jason Schechter joined Jefferies & Co. in recent weeks, according to a filing with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.