Derivs - People and Markets

Standard Chartered and Macquarie Bank are among a handful of firms believed to be setting their sights on tapping the Indian market for equity structured products.

Insurers are hedging volatility in variable annuity products over increasingly shorter timeframes to rebalance their books and as retail investors are expected to cash out their policies sooner.

Sean Saunders, an fx options trader covering Brazil and Chile at Bank of America in New York, was let go in the last round of cuts at the bank.

Industry officials in Asia have been buzzing about the departure of two senior equity derivatives staffers from UBS in Hong Kong.

Standard Chartered has appointed Malcolm Thomas as director of equity derivatives and intermediary sales in Southeast Asia.

Barclays Capital has added staffers to its proprietary trading team in New York in the wake of its integration with Lehman Brothers North America.

UBS is considering making changes to its U.S. correlation team spanning New York and Stamford, Conn.

Etan Zellner, a director in Deutsche Bank’s Saba proprietary credit trading group formerly under Boaz Weinstein, has resurfaced at Lehman Brothers in New York.

More than 250 London-based Dresdner Kleinwort staffers, including derivatives traders, are now said to be involved in plans to sue the firm over slashed bonuses, raising questions about whether they can continue taking risks for the bank.

Brevan Howard Asset Management is planning a series of UCITS III funds targeted at pension funds and other institutions that will invest in derivatives such as fx options and inflation swaps.

Maranda Wong, managing director and head of equity structured solutions for greater China at Merrill Lynch, and Tim Last, director of equity hedge fund sales, had their positions cut last month.

Amit Arora, an ex-correlation trader at JPMorgan, has landed at Pacific Investment Management Co.