Derivs - People and Markets

As over-the-counter derivatives pros debate the dangers of CME Clearing and ICE Trust not achieving interoperability—where CCPs face each other, allowing customers to choose where they clear trades—Kim Taylor, president of CME Clearing, said she is open to the idea conceptually, but troubled by the potential risks.

Goldman Sachs is looking to ramp up asset/liability management sales in Asia and has hired Gohir Anwar from Citigroup in London to run the business in Hong Kong.

The final draft of derivatives legislation from the U.S. House of Representatives will likely emerge as part of an omnibus bill addressing all of the Obama administration’s financial reform goals, which could improve its chances of eventual passage.

Richard Zack, head of U.S. equity derivatives sales at National Bank of Canada, has joined Prudential Bache Global Commodities Group as a senior v.p. tasked with developing its structured products business.

A tax bill introduced in Congress on Tuesday could force foreign firms to pay withholding taxes on dividend swaps on U.S. stocks, even if taxes have already been paid on the underlying dividends.

Gregor Kapferer, head of credit trading at BayernLB in New York, has been promoted to oversee all cash and derivatives trading on the desk across credit, fx and interest rates—a newly created role.

Hyundai Investment Trust Management is marketing a knockout structure to Korean retail investors that gives them the option of exiting the plan after six months if the Kospi 200 index is at or above its starting level.

Simon Yates, co-head of European equities at Credit Suisse in London, has taken a sabbatical. The bank has handed sole responsibility for the division to his co-head, Stephen Dainton.

A sharply different approach to reforming credit rating agencies from the one Capitol Hill has been working on won support Tuesday from House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

Researchers at Goldman Sachs have offered an estimate of risk reduction from clearing over-the-counter derivatives. Specifically, they calculate that introducing clearing for dealer-to-dealer trades will yield 16 times the counterparty risk reduction than would be achieved for trades between non-dealers.

Exchange and bank executives debated the likelihood of most over-the-counter derivatives moving to central clearing at yesterday's Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference in New York. A fiery editorial last Monday from Citadel founder Ken Griffin that urged mandated clearing got people talking.

If financial reform is like war—as U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Tim Geithner put it at the conference—then Wall Street CEOs would be on the other side of the battlefield from the government.