Derivs - People and Markets

Dealers and end users in South Korea are becoming concerned that the Korea Exchange has not yet addressed legal issues underlying the establishment of the country’s domestic over-the-counter central clearing counterparty, according to lawyers.

The Edhec-Risk Institute has warned against placing distinctions between physical and synthetic exchange traded funds, and has also criticized Blackrock for having different positions with U.S. and European regulators in respect to the use of derivatives in ETFs.

Negotiations between Greek government officials and its creditors for a debt swap deal have broken down over a failure to agree what the potential losses will be to bondholders.

Investors in Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext seem to be resigned to the merger of the two exchanges after E.U. antitrust officials urged the deal to be blocked, arguing that it would stifle market competition.

CME Group is planning to open an office in Belfast, Northern Ireland, according to two country government officials.

Deutsche Bank has reduced the size of it equity operations in Austria and has relocated some of the staff to bigger offices in other parts of Europe.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has named Graham Seaton to the new position of head of Asia-Pacific prime brokerage as part of its expansion in the region.

Aviva Investors has rolled out its Defined Growth Fund 3, a six-year structured product offering an annual return of 11%.

ProShares has introduced its first two exchange-traded funds that offer exposure to breakeven inflation: the ProShares 30 Year TIPS/TSY Spread and the ProShares Short 30 Year TIPS/TSY Spread.

Société Générale is reducing the size of its corporate and investment-banking staff in Asia by 100 as part of an earlier-announced 13% cut of its global workforce.

Thames River has added Brett Golledge as part of its restructuring of its global credit team, which will lose COO Chris Cunningham and portfolio manager Mehrad Noorani.

Hong Kong is likely to see more synthetic exchange-traded funds referencing commodities and fixed income this year. Firms are targeting the asset classes on the back of a lift from a spate of ETF approvals by the Securities and Futures Commission.