Derivs - People and Markets

Simon Mullaly, an ex-head of distressed trading at Deutsche Bank in London, is working on launching a credit investment boutique along with Lars Lemonius, an ex-Morgan Stanley portfolio manager in London.

Taiwan’s Financial Services Commission floated a proposal that 70% of proceeds from the sale of offshore retail structured products should be held in a local trust over the life of the note.

London-based Conduit Capital Markets, a boutique investment bank that specializes in structured products, is setting up a distribution team to sell credit and some equity structures, such as structured products, bonds and overlay products, to institutional clients.

New York-based 400 Capital Management has launched the 400 Capital Credit Opportunities Fund which will target high-net-worth investors.

Lee Richardson, a senior credit default swap trader in financials at Nomura, left the firm last week.

Equity strategists at Royal Bank of Scotland say it’s a good time to take advantage of high implied volatility and sell puts on three Chinese banks: China Construction Bank, ICBC and China Life Insurance.

Alessandro Dal Cin, formerly a director in equity derivative sales to hedge funds in London for Citigroup, has joined broker Newedge’s equity derivatives broking team.

A decision taken the Federal Court of Australia concerning a contractual dispute has concluded that forwards are not derivatives and therefore financial products, placing doubt as to whether they are now regulated in Australia.

Efforts to combat manipulative short selling will not be effective without regulating the derivatives market, in which credit default swaps are “a powerful device for bear raids,” according to attorneys at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.

The Chicago Climate Exchange has signed an agreement with the Korea Power Exchange and the Korea Energy Management Corp. to collaborate on creating emissions trading in Korea.

Credit Suisse has hired Chris Hodgeman to head up its life finance business in Asia.

Simon Gray, an index trader for BNP Paribas has been tapped by Macqaurie to head up the Asia equity index flow desk, a volatility trading business.