Derivs - People and Markets

Crédit Agricole is closing its investment-banking unit in South Africa, despite its profitability.

India’s IDFC has hired Jayen Shah as head of fixed income sale.

Nomura Holdings has denied a media report that it was shutting its investment-banking unit in the U.S. by the end of the year.

Nicholas Fentem, the former global head of rates, hybrids and commodity structuring at Dresdner Kleinwort in London, has joined StormHarbour Securities as a managing director in rates structuring.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria’s plan to expand its fx and interest rate derivative business with two new offices in Australia and Taiwan are to be delayed as the firm faces staffing cuts.

The Indonesian Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency has set up a group to investigate whether to establish a domestic clearinghouse for mandatory clearing of fx derivatives and interest rate swaps.

David Kwun, managing director in the equity derivatives group at HSBC, Tai Wei, senior v.p. in structuring and sales of fund-linked derivatives, and Nishant Mittal, senior v.p. in single stock derivatives trading, have exited the New York desk.

UniCredit has hired Michael Baptista, the former global head of cash equities and delta one at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London, as global head of research and head of cash equities for Central and Eastern Europe, also in London.

Remy Klammers, the global head of fixed income, currency and commodities at Standard Chartered in Singapore, has left to set up a hedge fund that will be seeded by the firm.

Firms in Hong Kong are concerned they may have to comply with global and local regulations which will require special identity numbers to report transactions to the country’s imminent trade repository.

International dealers are declining to become members of Japan’s credit default swap and interest rate clearinghouse unless their contribution to the guarantee fund for multiple defaults is capped.

The People’s Bank of China is reviewing whether the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors should produce an internationalized master agreement for Chinese derivatives.