Derivs - People and Markets

Chris Neale, an ex-managing director in equity derivatives trading at UBS, is set to join proprietary trading firm TradeLink in London as an index trader next week.

Lawrence Brandman, a bankruptcy lawyer specializing in derivatives, has joined Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in New York as head of bankruptcy strategic advisory for derivatives.

Matthew Pecot, former head of U.S. prime brokerage services at UBS, has chosen not to move to Barclays Capital to run its Asia Prime Brokerage business but instead take up a similar role at Credit Suisse.

Keydata Investment Services has brought out the latest issue in its Dynamic Growth Plan Plus series. Issue 17 is a five-year plan that allows investors to participate in the growth of the FTSE 100, using Citigroup as counterparty.

Standard Chartered has hired Brent Eastburg as global head of credit trading, according to a bank official.

Ex-Deutsche Bank credit maven Rajeev Misra has signed up with UBS to run its global credit business.

Calyon is advising investors to use sovereign credit default swaps as a proxy hedge if they buy into a hotly anticipated bond offering from Perusahaan Listrik Negara, the electric utility wholly owned by the Indonesian government.

Thomas Jasper, ceo of Primus Guaranty, believes consolidation between collateralized loan obligation managers is set to take off and that was the rationale behind Primus Asset Management recently agreeing to acquire CypressTree Investment Management, including its USD2.4 billion in loan assets.

The Federal Reserve will likely be the chosen regulator if U.S. financial regulation is consolidated, according to former regulators.

Culross Global Management is planning to launch two credit-focused funds of hedge funds in the next year—one liquid and the other illiquid.

Credit default swaps on XL Capital had been see-sawing from upfront points to running spreads over the past few days, but are now rallying at an accelerated pace. Dealers and brokers told Derivatives Week the name was being quoted on both conventions across the Street because on upfront points it was only in the low single digits.

Mexican interdealer broker Enlace recently started an fx options desk in New York. Previously it had focused primarily on vanilla over-the-counter products such as non-deliverable forwards and interest rate derivatives.