Derivs - People and Markets

German bank BayernLB is understood to be shutting down its securitization team in London and possibly the businesses in New York and Munich as well, according to market players.

Changes to the UCITS directive that have been approved by the European Parliament under UCTIS IV are likely to simplify the registration and cross-border distribution process of compliant funds, according to Karen Anderberg, a partner at law firm Dechert in London.

Credit default swaps on Canadian paper and pulp maker AbitibiBowater Inc. may have been triggered after the company said Friday it was looking to reduce interest payments and term out a loan maturing at the end of this month.

A long-awaited report on the global banking crisis published today by Lord Adair Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, has given some derivatives practitioners comfort that the U.K. regulator will take a measured approach to the notion of regulating credit default swaps.

The liability-driven investment unit of Schroders has launched its first synthetic credit fund to juice returns on investors’ existing allocations to index-linked gilts, nominal gilts and liquidity funds via an overlay strategy.

UBS has announced a raft of senior appointments in its Asia Pacific equity derivatives division.

Four ex-prop officials from JPMorgan are working on the launch of a new multi-strategy credit fund, named Sancus Capital Management after the Roman god of loyalty.

China’s National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors published a new master agreement last Tuesday designed to consolidate existing agreements in the marketplace.

Credit officials are beginning to assign a value to keeping modified restructuring (‘Mod R’) as an event trigger in credit default swaps. In a conference call this morning, trading heads at JPMorgan estimated the premium at 5-10% of spreads.

Gordian Knot’s USD10 billion synthetic structured investment vehicle-like fund, Theta, has been hit with multiple ratings downgrades as the vehicle may have to sell assets to meet credit default swap payments.

Bank Hapoalim has added two new salespeople to its equity derivatives team in New York.

Grant Thompson will join hedge fund CQS this week as joint ceo, a newly-created role.