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Legal & General is launching its first equity-linked investment product with the possibility of early knock-out Monday.

European proprietary desks were snapping up short-dated euro/dollar puts and calls last week taking directional positions on the single currency.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has hired Gonzalo Amian, a v.p. in structured derivatives marketing at Goldman Sachs in London, to sell structured products into Iberia.

Mark Northway, global head of structured credit at Rabobank in London, has left the firm.

An estimated GBP350 million (USD618 million) in notional has been traded on the sterling iTraxx credit-default swap index, SDI-75, since its launch in late November (DW, 11/23).

A wave of synthetic collateralized debt obligation transactions is expected to hit Taiwan, driven by firms looking to offload structured bonds.

Wachovia Securities is planning to establish an interest-rate derivatives structuring and trading desk in Hong Kong as part of a fixed income expansion in the region.

BNP Paribas has hired George Stien, v.p. in institutional derivatives sales, to sell listed options, exchange-traded funds and ETF options to hedge funds. Stien joined Jan. 11, reporting to Todd Steinberg, deputy head of equities and derivatives in the Americas, in New York. "This is the beginning of our building a full-service listed derivatives and ETF sales and trading desk," said Steinberg. He expects to add four more salespeople and four to six traders in the next month and a half.

Gonzalo Amian, a v.p. in derivatives marketing at Goldman Sachs in London, has left the firm. Amian sold credit, equity and interest-rate structures to clients in Iberia and reported to Jose-Antonio Carreterro, head of Iberian sales, who was unavailable for comment. Rebecca Nelson, spokeswoman in London, confirmed the departure, declining comment on a replacement.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has hired a structurer from JPMorgan in London.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association plans to release a draft update to the 2005 Novation Protocol on Thursday, with the hope of launching a final version in February. The document, officially called the ISDA Novation Protocol II but known colloquially as the Evergreen Protocol or NPII, is intended to make signing up easier for new market entrants and other dealers and funds that missed committing to the original form (DW, 12/23). The adherence period for the original protocol closed Nov. 30 with more than 2,000 market participants signed up.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association is planning to launch a template tomorrow for trading convertible-bond asset swaps. The convertible asset swap template will standardize documentation for bond options and swaps transactions--currently negotiated bilaterally between dealers and clients--and is expected to enable greater liquidity and the development of an inter-dealer market.