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ABN AMRO has appointed Matthew Wong, Asian head of trading in Hong Kong, to head the private investor products group, according to Hui Yuk Min, spokeswoman.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's capital adequacy requirements look set to take a toll on hedge fund-linked investments by applying a similar risk-weighting to the funds as to equity.

The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Currency Index, a tradable over-the-counter futures contract referenced to 10 Asian currencies, reached new highs last week on continued regional strengthening against the U.S. dollar.

Appetite for leveraged super senior tranches of collateralized debt obligations continues unabated, especially if the structures are tailored for the investor.

Ross Williams, managing director in proprietary credit trading at Bear Stearns in London, has left the firm.

BNP Paribas is road showing a collateralized debt obligation in Europe and Asia managed by BlackRock Financial Management, the U.S. manager with over USD414 billion under management.

Bank of America has hired Tim van den Brande, a former credit structurer at Merrill Lynch in London.

Players were snapping up short-dated USD/CAD, GBP/CAD and CAD/Yen options last week as the Canadian dollar gained strength against most currencies.

The price of protection on telecom giant Cable & Wireless blew out over 50 basis points last week after its credit rating was clipped to BB minus from BB Wednesday.

Castlegrove Capital Management, a London hedge fund co-founded by a trio of senior JPMorgan officials, is readying a March 1 launch of its first fund and has made several further hires.

--James Witter, head of private equity capital markets at Nomura International in London, commenting on the obstacles to structuring a collateralized fund obligation referencing private equity funds.