Derivs - People and Markets

Corporates in the Middle East have increasingly turned to vanilla and exotic fx options in recent weeks as central banks and some scholars have moved to approve more complex hedges.

Research and brokerage firm Louis Capital Markets wants to expand its Asian equity derivatives platform.

Citigroup has hired Jeremiah Stafford, a former director in credit default swaps index trading from Barclays Capital in New York.

The U.S. financial reform bill introduced last week by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) excluded a controversial proposal that would have limited the stakes dealers can hold in derivatives clearing houses.

Boutique investment bank Aladdin Capital Holdings has bought the collateralized synthetic obligation business of hedge fund Solent Capital Partners and hopes to acquire more.

Edmund Shing, a senior equity derivatives strategist at BNP Paribas in Paris, has left the firm and is yet to be replaced.

CME Group is heading towards a self-imposed, year-end deadline for the launch of its credit default swaps clearing platform, formerly known as CMDX, but its founding dealer members still have not been announced.

Credit risk specialist Quantifi has completed its first acquisition, Moment Analytics, a counterparty risk software vendor. Terms were not disclosed.

Vittorio Villa, a senior equity derivatives trader at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, has joined Credit Suisse in a new position as a prop trader specializing in long/short equities and volatility.

Credit Suisse has begun marketing five-year ‘smart allocation’ notes referencing the Swiss Market Index.

Korea’s Seoul Central District Court has approved a plaintiff’s request to call on Nobel Prize winner in economics, Robert Engle, as an expert witness for an fx knock-in knock-out case due to be heard on Dec. 17.

Frederic Yohann Freoa, a v.p. in equity derivatives index trading at JPMorgan in London, has left the firm and joined Goldman Sachs in the same position in a new role, also in London.