Derivs - People and Markets

Citigroup issued USD53.5 million in reverse convertible notes yesterday, its biggest such offering since March and a sign that the market for retail structured products is thawing after a long freeze.

International airlines, which are heavy users of over-the-counter oil hedges, are bracing for the pending derivatives regulations in the U.S. and Europe. They see the possibility of higher hedging costs when the sector is already struggling.

Overseas investors are looking to gain synthetic exposure to the U.S. commercial real estate market via total return swaps on the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries Property Index, believing that the physical properties are not yet a sound investment proposition.

Justin Golden, a principal in institutional equity derivatives sales at Bank of America in London, has joined B of A’s former head of equity sales trading Dean Curnutt at Macro Risk Advisors in New York.

Shane Whitehead, head of product development at U.K. structured investments specialist Arc Capital & Income, has left the firm.

Martin Bertsch, co-head of capital markets structuring for Asia Pacific at Nomura in Hong Kong, will be leaving at the end of the week.

Mike Ebert, a senior index trader at Merrill Lynch in London, is moving to New York to head U.S. equity index trading at the firm. He will help rebuild the desk in the wake of the departure of several senior staffers for Citadel Investment Group in May.

The U.S. Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. is using a color coding system that demarcates standardized over-the-counter trades from customized ones in its Deriv/SERV Trade Information Warehouse, and plans to reveal details of the non-standard trades in a few weeks time.

The Financial Services Authority’s decision to include all proprietary traders in its review of approved persons with “significant influence” on the firms where they work has smaller prop desks in a bind. That’s because of the expected costs associated with oversight of individuals, who would be continuously checked and interviewed.

A number of Bank of America flow equity derivatives traders have been let go in London, following perceived overlaps with the equivalent team at Merrill Lynch.

BNP Paribas has hired Andrew Sultana from Nomura in London as a senior flow credit salesman covering Italy, and two from Citigroup: Marion Schlicker, covering flow sales to Germany from Frankfurt, and Alessandra Bock in high yield sales in London.

Barclays Capital has recruited Ivan Ferraroni as head of Asia Pacific fx bank sales, including flow over-the-counter derivatives.