Derivs - People and Markets

Crédit Agricole CIB plans to restart its equity derivatives business, and start issuing structured notes with equity underlyings, according to the bank’s head of global markets. The bank sold a €12.5bn notional equity derivatives book to BNP Paribas in 2013, but now plans to get back into the business through its new “Equity Solutions” division.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has published a document to help market participants navigate the challenges of trading with counterparties in China.

Credit Suisse has named Brian Chin, the co-head of credit, as chief executive of global markets, replacing Tim O'Hara.

Credit investors have built up close to all-time record long positions in iTraxx indices, with the approaching September roll increasing reluctance to hedge against a potential move wider despite near historically low volatility.

Talk of the European Central Bank extending its bond buying programme to banks sent the iTraxx Europe Senior Financials credit default swap basket back within 20bp of the Main index on Monday and to its tightest levels since the UK referendum vote on EU membership at the end of June.

Barclays has hired Tim Throsby, who is global head of equities at JP Morgan, to two senior roles, as chief executive of the corporate and investment bank, and president of Barclays corporate and international. Throsby will take up the posts in January, subject to regulatory approval.

Major banks and their counterparties in Canada, Japan and the US entered a last gasp drive this week to comply with new margin rules on uncleared derivative trades ahead of Thursday’s deadline. But while most of the market looked to have averted disaster on the day, one of the key regulatory officials behind the rules had harsh words for the way in which they had been imposed.

The United States has unseated the United Kingdom from its long dominance of over-the-counter interest rate swaps (IRS) trading, according to an industry report this week.

In concert with Thursday’s roll out of margin rules for uncleared swaps, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association has gone live with an industry standard model to calculate initial margin on uncleared derivatives trades.

The Financial Stability Board has singled out removing barriers to over-the-counter derivatives reporting as a priority for G20 leaders ahead of their summit in Hangzhou this weekend.

Symbiont, a startup technology firm specialising in smart contracts and distributed ledgers for financial markets, has named a former Morgan Stanley senior banker as president and chairman of its board of directors.

HSBC Private Bank in the US has chosen a former EMEA DCM head at the group to lead its investment services and product solutions.