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Kuoni Travel Holding is considering reducing its use of option collars to hedge its exposure to oil prices for the coming holiday season.

--Dawid Konotey-Ahulu, managing director and head of the pension fund group for Europe at Merrill Lynch in London, on the current state of mortality-related derivatives.

Derivatives houses looking to kick-start a market for instruments linked to mortality, such as swaps in which investors pay or receive a death rate, have failed to find favor with investors.

Tricadia Capital, a subsidiary of Mariner Investment Group, has hired Chris Sy, v.p. and desk analyst in the credit derivatives group at JPMorgan in New York.

Tokyo-based Aozora Bank aims to start entering credit-default swaps referenced to the iTraxx Japan credit index in the coming months.

JPMorgan has added two managing directors and one v.p. to its securitized product group.

Adrian Valenzuela, head of equity derivatives flow sales, and Andrew Caplan, hedge fund salesman, have left Lehman Brothers in London.

Alain Kruger and Jesse Kapstein, v.p.s in investor marketing for financial institutions at JPMorgan in London, have jumped ship.

Plainfield Asset Management, the nascent Connecticut firm started by distressed maven Max Holmes, will use a variety of instruments, including credit-default swaps, when it launches its fund.

Nomura will launch its first fund-linked products in the next few weeks. Mike Fullalove, managing director in product development and fund derivatives in London, said the Japanese house has several deals in the pipeline.

Macquarie Bank has recently launched a combination of two structured product concepts in Asia in order to enhance returns on equity-linked notes.

Offshore hedge funds using total return swaps on bank loans have become increasingly involved in the origination process and some market participants warn their activity may be viewed as a lending business and subject to federal income tax.