Derivs - People and Markets

Royal Bank of Scotland is pushing calendar spread trades to position for what the bank is forecasting will be a gradual appreciation of the yuan against the U.S. dollar in six to 12 months time.

Tradeweb has completed what participants believe is the first centrally cleared, electronically traded, dealer-to-customer OTC interest rates swap executed on a multi-dealer platform. Deutsche Bank was the dealer counterparty.

The Coalition for Derivatives End-Users is planning a fly-in to Washington, D.C. on April 20, to lobby for clarity on end-user exemptions proposed in federal over-the-counter derivatives clearing requirements.

The Canadian Derivatives Clearing Corporation is working to finalize an over-the-counter derivatives clearing platform (CCP) with six domestic banks.

New legislation designed to stop hedge funds from using total return swaps to avoid paying withholding taxes on dividends has a big hole in it: it bans the TRS but doesn’t say anything about other derivative structures that have the same effect.

A proposal from the U.S. House of Representatives awaiting discussion in committee could reverse an old law that prevents mutual funds from investing directly in commodities.

Some U.S. derivatives professionals are looking towards structured products tied to longevity, instead of traditional swaps, as a means to spur the U.S. market and bringing it on a par with the relative boom seen recently in the U.K.

Dealers are estimating a 34% recovery rate at auction for triggered credit default swaps referencing Ambac Assurance Corp.

The European Commission will decide in October whether to ban naked sovereign credit default swaps.

Mark Green, a senior single stock equity derivatives trader at HSBC in London, has left the firm. He joined from Merrill Lynch last July (DW, 5/18) and according to headhunters is going to a hedge fund.

Goldman Sachs has lured Jae Hyuk Park, head of fixed income sales to Korea, back from an impending move to UBS.

Japan’s Financial Services Agency has given tacit approval to what is believed to be the first property derivatives trade by an onshore bank, and outlined other non-proprietary trades banks can perform.