Derivs - People and Markets

Norton Rose in London has promoted structured finance and derivatives associate Michael Godden to partner as the firm sees an uptick in disputes arising from the space.

In the wake of several counterparties, who owe or are owed money by Lehman Brothers International Europe, failing to submit timely valuations on their derivative contracts with the firm, administrator PriceWaterhouseCoopers is trying to move the ball forward.

Timothy Fischer, the former co-head of high-yield trading for North America at Lehman Brothers, is set to join Deutsche Bank as managing director in global credit trading.

An announcement from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. yesterday that it had terminated its plans to follow through with a proposed merger with LCH.Clearnet is forcing market participants to regroup and reconsider the future of global clearing.

Morgan Stanley is recommending hedge funds and other institutional investors buy three- to six-month variance on the Standard & Poor’s 500 and sell long-dated variance over two years.

Spencer Kelly, managing director in securitization derivatives at Barclays Capital in London, left the firm three days ago.

An investor in a European collateralized loan obligation has sold back an entire tranche to the deal’s manager, the first time this has happened in Europe.

Roger Cohen, the former head of Deutsche Bank’s index delta one desk, has set up a London advisory firm Portable Beta

Some market participants are expecting greater competition from banks issuing callable bull/bear contracts in Asia.

Harin De Silva, the former global head of collateralized debt obligations at Merrill Lynch, has re-emerged at PIMCO Global Advisors.

Josh Birnbaum, one of the traders who pushed Goldman Sachs to take short positions in subprime mortgage bonds last year, has set up Tilden Park Capital Management.

Morgan Stanley strategists are toying with a derivative-based structure that would play company enterprise values amid the rapid repricing of corporate debt and equity.