Derivs - People and Markets

Antoine Thibaud, a director in credit default swaps trading at Barclays Capital in London, left two weeks ago for a position at Société Générale.

Neil McPherson, managing director at NewOak Capital, has joined Markit as a managing director tasked with managing the company’s development of a system for pricing U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities.

U.K. insurer Norwich Union is open to repeating its inaugural longevity swap. Adrian Brar, senior finance manager in York, told Derivatives Week the timing would depend on the company’s risk appetite and market conditions.

Canadian pension funds who scooped up commercial real estate when the market was booming two years ago are now having trouble hedging their exposure.

An unidentified interdealer broker started calculating upfront fees for credit derivative index trades today based on new conventions that have not been formally agreed to and was forced by pricing model administrator Markit to back down.

Mint Partners, a London-based broker specializing in equities and fixed income, has expanded its over-the-counter and listed equity derivatives team with the appointment of three senior brokers.

Grigore Ciorchina, a high yield credit default swaps trader at BNP Paribas, has left to take a similar role at Royal Bank of Scotland in London.

UBS has hired Dondi Santillan, head of flow credit trading for Asia at ING, to run its flow credit trading in non-Japan Asia.

Institutional equity investors who want to make up for lost dividends on stocks are advised to write three-month covered calls 10% out of the money on the Standard & Poor’s 500, as an example, to pocket premiums, according to Morgan Stanley equity derivatives strategists.

Manish Kapoor, a former prop official at Lehman Brothers in New York, has formed an investment firm focusing on structured products.

Credit derivatives brokers in London have been witnessing a significant sell-off in protection on the 0-9% tranches of the iTraxx Europe series 9.

Ben Tan, a v.p. in credit default swaps trading at Morgan Stanley in London, will reportedly be joining Goldman Sachs shortly.