Derivs - People and Markets

Pirgun Akinal, a senior emerging markets fx options trader at HSBC, has left and is reportedly set to join Morgan Stanley in a new role in January.

Société Générale has hired Gary Hawkins, the former head of global emerging markets trading at ABN Amro.

Canadian banks are hiring aggressively in fx and fixed-income sales and trading across Asia, notably in Hong Kong and Singapore.

City headhunters say they are getting calls from Royal Bank of Scotland derivatives sales and trading staffers, who say they will quit in the New Year if they do not receive competitive performance-related bonuses for 2009.

Hedge funds have been buying up calls on sterling against the euro and U.S. dollar, following news that U.K. banking and construction sector exposure to Dubai was not as bad as feared.

CME Group is planning to start a pre-launch program for its credit default swaps clearing platform by Dec. 15, a self-imposed deadline the firm set itself earlier this year.

The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee appeared interested in creating a broad exemption for corporate end-users from new over-the-counter derivatives regulations at a hearing today, with many senators questioning whether all contracts need to be cleared.

Barclays Capital is set to hire Lehman Brothers veteran Kirk Sweeney, who formerly ran all of the bankrupt firm’s operations in Hong Kong.

Chookiat Rujanapornaje, head of fixed income and credit sales to Singapore and Thailand at Standard Chartered, is undertood to have left.

In congressional testimony today, Pete Axilrod, managing director at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., voiced his support for the concept of real-time public reports on OTC derivatives.

A proposed U.S. tax on financial transactions could have a major impact on over-the-counter derivatives involving physical delivery, because the derivative could be taxed in addition to the tax on the transfer of the underlying at settlement.

Société Générale has hired David O’Connor from HypoVereinsbank in New York as a director in fx sales, covering options, spot and forwards as well as some precious metals.