Derivs - People and Markets

Nicolas Schmitz, a senior equity derivatives single stocks trader at Liquid Capital in London, has joined Santander in a similar role.

Broker MF Global has hired Kumaran Vijayakumar, a former head of equity derivatives at Banc of America Securities, to lead the build-out of its U.S. equity derivatives desk.

Hedge funds who established February and March 2010 expiry call spreads on Kraft Foods in anticipation of the successful acquisition of Cadbury look set to earn millions.

Royal Bank of Scotland has made several senior appointments within its global banking and markets business in Singapore.

Europe is zeroing in on taxing financial transactions, with specific reference to over-the-counter derivatives.

Jony Attan, executive director and head of corporate sales for Indonesia and Malaysia at JPMorgan, has left the firm to join Morgan Stanley in a similar role.

Société Générale is planning to expand its flow fixed income and currencies sales force throughout Asia Pacific in the next two to three months.

Merchant Capital Limited, a London-based corporate finance, investment advisory and stockbroking firm, is marketing its first structured product, linked to the FTSE 100.

The Japanese Financial Services Agency is considering giving a future central counterparty clearing outfit the power to determine when credit default swaps referencing Japanese companies should be triggered.

South Korea is planning to have an automated database up and running by the middle of next month that will capture all onshore over-the-counter fx trading activity, the Financial Supervisory Service told Derivatives Week today.

A master agreement for entering into Shariah-compliant derivatives transactions is likely to be initiated in March, according to an official at Bahrain’s International Islamic Financial Market.

Donal Galvin, the former head of exotics trading and structuring at Rabobank in London, has joined Mizuho Securities Asia in Hong Kong.