Derivs - People and Markets

David Steck, a senior FX salesman at Deutsche Bank in New York, has left the firm and is tipped to be heading to Susquehanna Financial Group.

Hedge funds and bank prop desks in London were buying five-year credit default swaps on Swedish-based home appliances provider Electrolux Friday morning, marking a stark contrast to activity earlier in the week when they were selling protection on the name.

Morgan Stanley this week started pitching a number of over-the-counter option plays to take advantage of what it expects will be falling correlation in the equity markets.

Rob Pitcher, a director in exotic equity derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley in London, has left the firm and is expected to join Citigroup.

At the end of the month, London’s Prodigy Capital will launch a UCITS-compliant version of its USD30 million Asia and Emerging Markets Fund with a target size of GBP40 million.

Deutsche Bank has hired Dushyant Chadha in New York as head of equity derivatives trading in North America—a new role. He joins in August.

Jefferies & Co. has tapped 12 new staffers in equity derivative sales and electronic trading in a bid to boost its institutional client offering and create more bespoke strategies.

Charlie Harris, head of property derivatives trading at Royal Bank of Scotland in London, left the bank last week and is expected to join Deutsche Bank in London in a similar role.

PricewaterhouseCoopers confirmed in writing to Blue Sky Asset Management this morning that none of its investors will be affected by the insolvency of Keydata Investment Services.

The Swiss Structured Products Association is set to launch a ratings system for all structured products traded in the country, due to demand from its members for a standard risk benchmark.

Grupo Santander plans to boost the over-the-counter hedging products it offers-notably non-deliverable forwards on Latin American currencies-and interest rate derivatives to corporates in Asia.

JPMorgan rose from the thirteenth most common financial reference entity in credit default swap contracts to fifth place between May 22 and May 29, according to Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. data. A spokesman said the market did not process until very recently the succession event when JPMorgan assumed Bear Stearns’ debt.