Derivs - People and Markets

Telecom names have been a big focus in European credit default swap trading over the past month, with Deutsche Telekom and British Telecom featuring most, according to new figures from broker GFI Group.

A synthetic collateralized loan obligation called Allos was recently iced due to a lack of appetite, but is expected to be placed privately sometime in the second half of this year.

Broker MF Global has added 16 staffers in Singapore to form a new energy derivatives desk there and five to its Hong Kong office focusing on equity.

A series of banks are said to be teaming up to launch a structured note—perhaps as big as USD1 billion—in a bid to boost the image of the structured products market as it comes under increasing scrutiny from regulators.

In a bid to stave off regulation and show it can police itself, the structured products industry is planning to develop a proficiency exam for sales associates. It would be similar to the Series 7 exam used by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to oversee stockbrokers.

London-based Centurion Fund Managers is planning to execute its fourth longevity swap in March.

Barclays Capital and Macquarie Bank are among a handful of banks seeking to partner up with U.S. institutions on development platforms that will juice their marketing efforts for retail structured products.

A new set of indices being developed by FOEX Indexes, part of the Finnish Options Exchange, will track the price of wood pellets in Europe and North America and allow utilities to hedge the cost of the raw material for clean energy projects via swaps.

A pair of banks is in talks to structure derivatives linked to indices on Pakistan’s largest bourse. The development comes after the Karachi Stock Exchange and German consulting firm Structured Solutions signed a deal this week to draw banks as licensees to use KSE’s indices as underlyings.

A “standard converter” allowing credit default swap traders to calculate payments under new fixed-coupon CDS contracts is slated for release Feb. 23. Markit revealed the plan this afternoon at a New York forum it hosted to educate market participants.

Darren Baggett, a managing director in index trading at Morgan Stanley in London, resigned last week.

Macquarie Bank is in discussions with a trio of European banks to piggyback on existing structured product platforms they own in the U.S. to broaden its retail sales effort until it has approval for its own.