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There appears to be growing interest from pension funds in trading credit-default swap index instruments and dealers said a stack of funds is gearing up to trade iTraxx swaps for the first time later this month.

UBS has made a senior hire for its equity derivatives desk in Hong Kong to cover corporates. Pascal Vinais joins as an executive director in the equity risk management team.

UBS has hired Stephen Sze, head of the third-party distribution group at BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, as head of fixed income distribution for Asia in Hong Kong, according to officials familiar with the situation.

Dillon Read Capital Management, the alternative investment business of UBS, has surprised the market by hiring JPMorgan's global head of equity proprietary trading.

Wachovia Securities International has hired three senior equity derivatives traders in London.

The price of credit protection on Dutch media and entertainment group VNU yo-yoed last week after a consortium offered to buy the company, but then two key VNU stakeholders opposed the sale.

--Janet Kim, managing director and head of strategic equity at BNP Paribas in New York, discussing the emergence of accelerated share repurchase plans with flexible buy-back dates.

BNP Paribas' Shazhad Malik, senior credit structurer for Southeast Asia, based in Singapore, has left, according to firm officials.

Alex Bernand, managing director and head of structured credit trading at Bank of America in London, has quit the firm.

Credit Suisse is planning a U.S. roadshow for a London-based collateralized equity default obligation later this month.

A growing number of companies are buying back call options on convertible bond issues--financed in part by sales of higher strike calls to banks--to hedge issuance.

Dealers using credit derivatives indices to hedge bespoke collateralized debt obligation issuance have disjointed spreads in the mezzanine tranches of both the European and U.S. credit derivatives indices, causing them to cross for the first time.