Derivs - People and Markets

Coventry First, a specialist in secondary life settlement transactions, has launched a platform whereby it can structure and distribute customised longevity swaps to European investors.

Macro Risk Advisors, a New York broker dealer specializing in equity derivatives, is recommending investors buy put spreads on commercial real estate companies, reflecting the expectation of declining values.

Lyxor Asset Management has launched what it claims is the first actively managed UCITS III-compliant fund of funds.

Nomura has hired Anuj Awasthi, head of structured fx and interest rate flow sales to corporates at Merrill Lynch in Singapore. The firm has also reportedly recruited Sandeep Aggarwal, director and head of high yield trading at Deutsche Bank in Singapore.

BNP Paribas is understood to have hired Mark Mallia, the former global head of credit trading at Shinsei Bank, to run its flow credit business for Asia Pacific from Hong Kong.

Janice Yu, a director at Citibank heading up structured product sales to private banks in Hong Kong, has left the firm.

ICE Trust has devised an auction mechanism for determining the settlement prices of cleared credit default swap positions and therefore the daily variation margin to be posted by its members.

Toronto-based Integrated Asset Management bought a one-year double no-touch option on the U.S. dollar/Canadian dollar at the beginning of the year.

Ira Koyner, head of foreign exchange derivatives and local markets trading for Dresdner Kleinwort in New York, left the bank last week to join Citigroup as an options trader.

Charlie Cho, head of credit sales and trading for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Bank of America, is set to relocate to New York from London in early June.

Mark Wegbrans, a director at Merrill Lynch who sold collaterized debt obligations, interest rate derivatives and fund-linked derivatives into Benelux, has joined Aladdin Capital Management in London.

Stewart Jones, managing director in U.K. retail structured sales at UBS in London, left the firm last week.