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Deutsche Bank has signed up Malik Chaabouni, co-head of synthetic structuring at Merrill Lynch in London, as a managing director in the structured credit trading group.

Ross Williams, a former managing director in proprietary credit trading at Bear Stearns in London, has resurfaced at Peloton Partners, an investment fund set up by ex-Goldman Sachs partners Geoff Grant and Ron Beller last year.

Fidelity International has hired Stephen Fulford, former European head of equity derivative flow sales at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, in a new role as head of derivatives for European funds.

Marble Bar Asset Management, a London-based hedge fund with USD2 billion under management, has hired Guy Shahar, an equity derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs. Gilad Hayeem, chief executive, said Shahar will look at hedging strategies for Marble Bar, a systematic long/short European equity fund.

Players buying up in large sizes euro/U.S. dollar puts set to expire Thursday stood out in a quiet week in Europe.

--Jerry Wu, head of equity derivatives at KGI Securities in Hong Kong, commenting on an outstanding tax on Taiwan warrants premiums, which has led to the market going on strike.

Credit derivative houses in Japan are closely watching proposed accounting changes which may help draw in a flood of new CDO investors.

Lehman Brothers in London has hired Dominic Nys, an equity derivative salesman formerly at TD Securities.

The advent of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's pay-as-you-go template for credit-default swaps on asset-backed securities has allowed more portfolio managers to use synthetic ABS, but managers say it is a struggle to fill buckets of CDS on ABS.

Merrill Lynch has hired Emmanuel Girod, a senior equity exotics trader at Credit Suisse in London, in a new role as head of equity structured products trading.

Merrill Lynch has launched its onshore equity derivatives effort in Korea after receiving a full derivatives license late last year.