Derivs - People and Markets

Standard & Poor’s has fielded calls about tying structured products to the family of credit default swap indices it unveiled yesterday. Its CDS U.S. Index matches the basket of stocks in the S&P 100 equity index.

Credit default swaps on Liz Claiborne were not triggered after much debate Tuesday, following changes the company made to its credit facility recently.

Loïc Fery, the former global head of structured credit at Calyon, is hoping to launch a credit fund early next month at his London startup, Chenavari Credit Partners. The Chenavari Credit Dislocation Fund will begin by focusing on convexity plays.

Sales of white-labeled retail structured products in Hong Kong have fallen off amid counterparty risk concerns and the public furor over Lehman Brothers-linked minibonds, leaving a question mark over the viability of the business model.

Credit data provider Credit Market Analysis is opening a regional office in Singapore in February.

A decision made earlier this month by a Delaware bankruptcy judge involving two energy companies has called into question whether setoff clauses in derivative contracts can be upheld.

Pierre Bes, head of investor solutions at Barclays Capital in London, is in discussions about his future at the bank after his current position was recently eliminated.

Russian investment bank Troika Dialog has cut its global head of derivative sales, Douglass Welch.

Barclays Capital is preparing to launch an investment structure called a cross asset rotator.

Jessie Heng has joined ANZ Bank in Singapore as its head of institutional sales for Southeast and South Asia.

Buysiders and sellsiders are being invited to a Jan. 29 forum at the Times Center in New York aimed at educating investors about pending changes to credit default swap contracts.

Ramine Rouhani, head of North American capital markets at Natixis in New York, recently left the firm.