Derivs - People and Markets

Emerging markets credit default swap players are considering a move to the new standardized CDS format, following in the footsteps of their North American counterparts.

Sellsiders in Singapore are objecting to a mandatory cooling off period for retail investors of structured products.

China’s State Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), the country’s regulator for all state-owned enterprises (SOEs), will now have to approve in advance any transactions deemed risky, placing all over-the-counter derivatives into that bracket.

MetLife has come out in support of a Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that would force equity-linked annuities to be regulated as securities, just as variable annuities are.

Some structured products desks are seeing increased interest from high-net-worth individuals and family offices for retail structured notes and certificates of deposit.

Litigation-focused law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges has hired Daniel Cunningham, a senior partner and co-head of the global U.S. practice at Allen & Overy in New York.

Morgan Stanley is recommending investors place short-dated put spreads on certain energy stocks instead of direct investments in commodities.

Stephen Tang, director of derivatives-related corporate finance and risk solutions at Royal Bank of Scotland in London, will move to Hong Kong next month.

Mel Gunewardena, global head of fixed-income prime brokerage and credit derivative intermediation at Deutsche Bank, has left the firm.

Liquid Capital Markets, a London-based equity options market maker, is opening a New York office to broker options on stocks, indices and exchange-traded funds to institutional money managers and hedge funds.

Citigroup’s retail structured products arm will have access to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s brokers even after Morgan acquires Citi’s Smith Barney unit.

A recent proposal to reinstate the uptick rule is seen as addressing only part of the issue with short selling, since it does not do away with the problem of when the volume of shorts exceeds the number of shares outstanding.