Derivs - People and Markets

European commercial banks are approaching asset managers and broker dealers to enter total return swaps to free up capital.

Asia-Pacific sellsiders are shifting to look for senior derivatives players with broader-based skills rather than specific expertise.

Dealers and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association are working on ways to settle credit-default swaps triggered by a restructuring credit event and are considering grouping together contracts with similar maturities and running a separate auction for each of these groups of contracts.

A director in Deutsche Bank’s collateralized debt obligation group has joined hedge fund firm BlueMountain Capital Markets.

Merrill Lynch has lost a Milan-based structured equity derivatives salesman, Matteo Kohlloeffel, to Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.

Dresdner Kleinwort equity derivatives structuring director Sebastien Bossu is out the door.

Stephen Cheng has left his slot as managing director and head of Asia credit trading at UBS in Hong Kong.

Lehman Brothers London-based fund derivatives staffer Michael Samaha has left the firm.

Calyon has hired fx and rates sales specialist Arnold Kan as deputy head of fixed income markets for Asia ex-Japan, a new role for the firm.

Dealers and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association are working on how to deal with a restructuring credit event as part of a broader project to hard-wire cash settlement into ISDA documents.

Angus Hui, marketing director for equity and fund derivatives at Calyon in Hong Kong, has left the firm.

The merger of The Royal Bank of Scotland and ABN AMRO's Asian operations will see the creation of a new structured credit derivatives and alternatives business which will feature property and insurance derivatives, according to officials familiar with the situation.