Derivs - People and Markets

Todd Steinberg, the recently departed head of equity and commodity derivatives for BNP Paribas in the Americas, is reportedly set to join Nomura in New York.

Credit default swaps on SLM Corp., commonly known as Sallie Mae, gapped out to 25 points upfront from 14 points earlier today on concern that U.S. President Barack Obama’s budget proposals will halt subsidies for student loan providers.

Alex Wohl, the former head of equity derivative sales and trading at Jefferies in New York, has formed Woodlawn Advisors, a boutique catering to institutional clients.

Kokou Agbo-Bloua has joined JPMorgan’s equity derivatives trading desk in London from Goldman Sachs.

A bill proposed earlier this month by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) could force dealers to pay an excise tax on the sale and purchase of options, drastically increasing trading costs.

An unidentified real money account bought a USD50 million five-year credit default swap Friday on Fortune Brands, the company behind Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark bourbon, various hardware products, and golf brands Titleist and FootJoy.

Siobhan Pettit, global head of structured credit strategy at Royal Bank of Scotland in London, has been named global head of corporate credit research.

Noteholders of a Lehman Brothers residential mortgage-backed securities deal are today meeting to decide with the issuer whether to terminate a swap agreement with the fallen firm and whether to file claims against it for missed swap payments.

JPMorgan is reportedly contemplating a major reshuffle of its equity derivative chiefs across all regions.

Interdealer broker Phoenix Partners Group has launched an equity derivative business in New York, London and a new office in Paris.

A bevy of Street firms has formed a coalition to fight criticism related to credit default swap trading— which has been tagged by some observers as a major contributor to the financial crisis.

A group of equity derivatives and structured products lawyers have left McKee Nelson in New York to join the securities and structured finance team at U.K. firm Ashurst in its New York and Washington, D.C., offices.