Derivs - People and Markets

Tomorrow’s deadline for filing claims against Lehman Brothers could prompt a flurry of trading in derivatives contracts where the bank served as swap counterparty, according to market watchers.

Darren Baggett, a managing director in index trading in London, who resigned from Morgan Stanley in January (DW Online, 1/29), rejoined the firm a few weeks ago in a newly created post.

StormHarbour Partners, the London boutique formed by ex-Citigroup trading executives Antonio Cacorino and Fred Chapey, has added 22 staffers across London and New York in recent weeks, including Won Choi as head of European credit from Citigroup.

Markit made a last-minute alteration to its iTraxx Japan index rules late Friday, allowing it to replace troubled consumer finance company Aiful with Tokio Marine Nichido Fire Insurance Co. on the eve of the index roll into series 12.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s EMEA Determinations Committee has agreed on the list of debt obligations that will be deliverable into the credit default swaps settlement auction for Thomson.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase issued nearly identical structured products linked to the S&P 500 on Tuesday, but the performance caps they applied were different. It could not be determined if it was a split deal for the same customer, a format some structured deals have taken of late.

The joint clearing venture between CME Group and Citadel Investment Group has been restructured to focus solely on clearing, shelving the Citadel-led electronic execution platform for credit default swaps trading, CMDX.

Barclays Capital is restructuring USD12.3 billion of structured credit assets through a sale to Protium Finance, a newly created Cayman Islands fund. Protium will pay C12 Capital Management—a new management company led by Stephen King, former head of Barclays’ principal mortgage trading group, and Michael Keeley, member of Barclays’ management committee covering European financial institutions—USD40 million a year to manage the assets.

London-based Meteor Asset Management today launched what it calls its Prima Platinum Plan, a five-year investment with returns linked to the FTSE100 and the S&P500.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has commissioned a Bahasa translation of the 2002 ISDA Master Agreement.

Panelists at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association annual regional meeting in New York, continued to broadcast the benefits of credit default swaps, recognizing that much of their argument has so far fallen on deaf ears.

With volatility on the S&P500 at historic lows, now is a good time to lock in equity gains with zero-cost collars, according to Jim Strugger, a derivatives strategist at equity trading and research firm MKM Partners in Greenwich, Conn.