Derivs - People and Markets

Merrill Lynch has issued a five-year note that offers investors a fixed 6% annual coupon linked to the performance of the Dow Jones EuroSTOXX 50.

Nick Ashby, a senior high-yield bond and credit default swap trader formerly at HSBC in London, and Jason Bruhl, a high yield salesman formerly with Merrill Lynch, have joined Calyon.

Regulations imposed on Thursday by South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Commission to limit fx hedging transactions should have limited negative impact on market activity, analysts at Standard Chartered believe.

Preserving the confidentiality of post-execution trade data could throw a wrench in international regulators’ plans to create global trade repositories for over-the-counter derivatives—unless a clear regulatory framework is set up to protect users.

CIT Group’s term loan “B” and bonds traded down after the middle-market lender was the subject of an auction today to set loan credit default swaps and CDS referencing its debt.

Northern Trust next year plans to add derivatives contracts to its liquidity monitoring capabilities. The firm has put a major focus on liquidity issues in the past year in light of problems experienced by investors in 2008 due to the largely unexpected downturn.

A senior derivatives executive resigned Tuesday from Lehman Brothers, which is having trouble keeping Street firms from poaching its staff, according to Bryan Marsal, chief restructuring officer.

A number of derivatives staffers were among the 272 promoted to managing director by Goldman Sachs last week. They include Cyril Goddeeris, a New York-based equity swaps trader, and George Dramitinos, an interest rates derivatives trader in London.

The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to craft derivatives legislation following a surge in local trading volume over the past year. The regulator has been talking to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association to help with the project.

Broker MF Global has hired Maurice Zhang to sell equity derivatives into China, focusing on institutional buyers and domestic funds, such as Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors, also known as QDIIs.

The battle of the CDO flip cause got heated in U.S. bankruptcy court today as lawyers for the Lehman Brothers Holdings estate argued that the firm should be paid ahead of noteholders—despite a recent English court ruling that said otherwise.

Industry veteran Connie Voldstad has been appointed ceo of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. He’ll replace Bob Pickel, who will assume a newly created role of executive vice chairman. The change is effective Nov. 30.