Derivs - People and Markets

Droit Financial Technologies, a New York-based regulatory financial technology firm focused on over-the-counter derivatives, has made a senior hire in London as part of a European business drive.

Almost two years after Moody’s and Fitch changed their rating criteria to take account of the Bank Resolution and Recovery Directive, Standard & Poor’s has set out how it plans to build resolution regimes into its ratings.

With less than a month to go until a major global deadline for market participants to begin posting variation margin, concern has turned to clamour as buy-side officials, industry bodies and service providers have lined up to ask regulators to allow a reprieve.

Many market commentators have commented that 2017 will be the year of political risk. Uncertainty around Brexit, Donald Trump’s inaugural year as US president and a series of elections in continental Europe make conditions ripe for bouts of volatility.

Weaker than expected uptake of an ISDA protocol has left banks well behind schedule to meet the March 1 variation margin deadline and facing a “massive capacity crunch in February”, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has set out guidelines it wants authorities to follow in their frameworks used to resolve failing central counterparties (CCPs).

A letter from a top Republican Congressman in the US has asked that Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen halt participation in all international agreements aimed at setting global financial regulatory standards.

HSBC has promoted Hossein Zaimi to become global head of equities, replacing Patrick George in the role, who continues as EMEA global markets head.

Derivatives market participants should be given a relief period on variation margin rules after the slated March 1 deadline, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association has said, adding its voice to a rising clamour across the industry.

The European Securities and Markets Authority wants to standardise the way that trade repositories and market participants transfer data on derivatives obligations, having warned that problems could arise under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) regulations.

TP ICAP, the firm formed in the recent merger of Tullett Prebon and ICAP, has made its first acquisition with the addition of Burton-Taylor International Consulting to its data and analytics division.

Pension funds and other buy-side institutions are not prepared to meet new variation margin rules expected to come into force on March 1. And if they cannot trade, the regulation is not worth the paper it is written on, delegates heard at a conference in Luxembourg last week.