Derivs - People and Markets

UBS is said to have lost at least four executives in it investment-banking operations in the Americas, including Kaushik Amin as head of fixed income, fx and commodities; Jim Lanzilotti as head of local markets/ emerging markets trading, Matias Santa-Cruz as executives director for Latin America equity capital markets and David Cannon, an FICC managing director.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has begun updating its contract for sovereign credit default swaps in the wake of the recent Greek CDS events.

Onshore Chinese yuan non-deliverable forwards are likely to gain less traction from market participants as the price difference between it and its deliverable offshore counterpart become tighter.

Goldman Sachs in London has merged its high yield credit and hedge funds sales teams as part of a broader re-organization of the firm’s management in credit to save costs, according to market participants.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is said to be reviewing Credit Suisse’s VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX Short-Term ETN, which grew by nearly 90% above its asset value after the bank stopped issuing shares in February.

Société Générale is planning to reorganize its corporate and investment bank, which will involve changes in senior management as it shifts to an origination business model that will include selling loans to investors to shrink its balance sheet.

BlackRock is renegotiating thousands of credit support annexes related to collateral posting on derivatives in an effort to make it easier for buy-side clients to compare prices among dealers.

HSBC has named Andrew Dell as ceo of its operations in South Africa.

The new iShares MSCI Frontier 100 Index Fund plans to invest in futures, options and swaps contracts in addition to countries such as Croatia, Kuwait and Sri Lanka, among others.

Markus Ferber, MEP and member of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, has published a draft legislative report on the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation, following a report earlier this week on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.

China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange is encouraging dealers operating onshore to increase the innovation in fx options they offer to corporates for hedging purposes.

Goldman Sachs is said to have recorded a 142% surge in client –driven derivatives revenues in its European unit since the beginning of the year, according to an internal memo.