Derivs - People and Markets

The Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Jeremy Smart in a newly created role as global head of electronic distribution within its market and international banking division in London.

Richard Carson, the former global head of equity derivatives at Deutsche Bank, is set to join Barclays as European head of equity market risk in London.

Leverage ratio calculations in the amended capital requirements directive that do not take into account the offsetting nature of the matching legs of a cleared trade would not be consistent with the direction of ongoing global regulatory reform, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

Mark Lear, head of emerging market equity trading in London, and Anurag Jodhawat, head of Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa equity derivatives trading in London, have both left Bank of America Merrill Lynch in recent days.

Igor Arsenin, director of fixed income research and the head of Latin America fixed income strategy at Credit Suisse in New York, has been appointed managing director and head of emerging Asia interest rates strategy at Barclays Capital in Singapore.

Chris Smith, head of hedge fund sales at Deutsche Bank in London, has left the firm and is set to join HSBC in the same role in London.

The Kospi 200, Korea’s exchange traded derivatives index, dropped 42% in July from a year earlier, trading only 88.4 million contracts.

South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced plans to impose a 0.001% tax on futures contracts linked to the Kospi 200 exchange and a 0.01% levy on premiums for options.

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) has requested that investors and market participants submit ideas to the House of Representatives’s Financial Services Committee with the goal of coming up with an alternative to the Volcker Rule.

Amherst Securities Group has hired Dan Derby as v.p. of fixed-income securities.

Sherry Liu has stepped down as chairman and ceo of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s China operations after 16 months but will continue as an adviser to RBS’ international investment banking team.

Markit is planning to launch early next year CMBX 6, its first index of credit default swaps on commercial mortgage-backed securities in four years.