Derivs - People and Markets

Financial lawyers, securities industry lobbyists and other market participants fear momentum is building in the U.S. Congress to find ways to tax equity derivatives, as a partial means to make Wall Street pay for bailouts.

Calyon is expected to cut its equity derivatives staffers in New York and move what is left of the operation to Paris sometime this spring.

Convertible arbitrage funds and short-biased equity strategies ruled the hedge fund roost in February, with fixed-income arbitrage close behind.

Korn/Ferry International has hired Pasha D’Silva as a client partner to bolster its structured product and derivatives team in Hong Kong.

The chairman of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators taskforce on credit default swaps has asked the U.S. Congress to build some flexibility into how it defines covered versus naked CDS before it forces any regulation on the industry.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has finalized a raft of senior appointments, with Merrill structured investment bankers largely winning out.

Credit Suisse is thought to be in pole position to pick up a team of senior equity structured products staffers from UBS in Hong Kong after their departure on Friday.

Taiwan’s Yuanta Securities had been planning to expand into retail structured products in Hong Kong, but according to an insider it is reconsidering the move.

Market participants are pondering the impact to derivatives contracts of Syncora Guarantee, formerly XL Capital Assurance, becoming insolvent after the monoline insurer stated Thursday that for statutory accounting purposes it has a negative net worth.

Sean George, head of credit derivatives trading at Bank of America, and Masaya Okoshi, head of investment grade credit trading, are set to join Deutsche Bank this summer.

Morgan Stanley is considering a second launch of its inaugural gilt-backed plan for U.K. retail investors next month.

Swiss Alpha Asset Management in Pfäffikon is preparing to launch a UCITS III-compliant version of its options-trading fund, the Alpha Strategies Fund.