Derivs - People and Markets

An attorney with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to ease the registration process for security-based swaps issued by clearing agencies, should they fail to benefit from planned exemptions from the securities laws.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has warned Australian regulators about the potentially high price tag for setting up and running a domestic central clearing counterparty and the implications it may have for the wider market.

EFG Financial Products has hired Alex Robinson, the ex-director in structured product sales at Barclays Capital, to build out the firm’s U.K. structured product business when it launches later this year.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it expects to vote Sept. 8 on two proposals: One on how to phase in documentation and margining requirements, and a second on mandatory clearing and trading implantation regulations.

The determinations committee of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association has ruled that a suggestion in a financial statement that Texas Competitive Electric Holdings, a former unit of TXU and now owned by Energy Futures Holdings, may be insolvent was not a bankruptcy credit event triggering the payout on USD1.2 billion of credit default swaps referencing the firm.

The London Stock Exchange is said to be in talks to acquire LCH.Clearnet, after its effort to take control of Canada’s TMX collapsed.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association increased the amount it spent on lobbying the federal government and Congress on financial reform to USD505,000 in the second quarter.

PIMCO’s new PIMCO Credit Absolute Return Fund, described as a “go anywhere” fixed-income fund, plans to use hedging strategies, including credit default swaps.

CLS Bank, the primary settlement provider for the global fx industry, has named Gabor Butor to the new position of head of European regulatory affairs.

Saba Capital Management is said to have hired Toby Maitland Hudson to be in charge of credit default swaps linked to commercial mortgage-backed securities and relative-value trades.

Jubilee Financial Products has introduced a kick-out plan linked to performance of the FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX.

Charles Schwab has announced that is has completed its acquisition of optionsXpress Holdings, the online options brokerage, in a deal valued at USD1 billion.