Derivs - People and Markets

The New York state bill banning naked credit default swaps, where the user of the derivative has no economic interest in the underlying debt securities, and that would force the sellers of CDS to be licensed insurance carriers, reached the state assembly this morning.

The Senate Agriculture Committee voted 13-8 to send the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010, penned by Chairman Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), to the full senate.

A handful of six-month discrete one-touch options hit the market earlier this week in anticipation the U.S. dollar will continue to strengthen against the yen.

Charles Chiang, head of Asia equity index flow trading at JPMorgan, left the bank last week.

A provision in the recently released Senate Agriculture Committee bill would impose a fiduciary duty on swap dealers transacting with municipalities and pension plans, and many industry players say this could destroy the already shaky market.

Interdealer broker ICAP has hired Phil Barker, a senior v.p. in property derivatives at GFI Group in New York, to oversee its fledgling inflation derivatives desk. Barker left GFI in January and joined ICAP earlier this month in the newly created role, reporting to Dan Flannery, president of ICAP Securities.

Makram Fares, head of equity derivatives distribution at UBS in London, resigned yesterday, reportedly to join Nomura.

E.U. politicians have called on the European Commission to require at least 80% of derivatives to be centrally cleared.

Shawn Riley, head of Asia equity sales and trading at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, has left the firm.

The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority expects further clarification on how the imminent capital requirements directive’s due diligence measures deal with trading and banking books taking positions in structured finance.

Ian Phung, a senior emerging markets interest rates trader at HSBC in Hong Kong, left the bank two weeks ago.

In the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint against Goldman Sachs, some market participants are asking why the rating agencies had not caught the poor quality of the portfolio sooner.