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Arnaud Apffel, a senior equity derivatives sales official at Goldman Sachs in London, has left the firm.

An impending set of U.S. accounting rules for the tax-exempt market may bring significant new bookkeeping burdens and associated costs to governmental derivative end-users, and that has dealers fearing muni issuers will pull back usage.

Steven Phan, managing director and head of fund-linked trading and structuring at Merrill Lynch in London, has left the firm, as first reported on Derivatives Week's Web site (www.derivativesweek.com) last Monday.

Nikko Citigroup has restructured its fixed-income desk with two new senior appointments on the back of top-level management changes.

Howard Chen is leaving the equity barrier options desk at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

A managed synthetic collateralized debt obligation of municipal paper that passes through tax-exempt interests to all rated classes will soon hit the market.

PIMCO Europe is talking to investment banks about structuring capital-protected versions of its investment funds.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has hired Philippe Avril, manager in the investment banking division at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, in a senior role in Tokyo overlooking the Japanese market.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is preparing to boost its presence in the Asian equity derivative markets with impending transfers after laying down the framework last year.

--Justin Kennedy, managing director in Asia-Pacific equity derivatives at Citigroup in Hong Kong, commenting on record low levels of implied equity volatility.

Taipei-based Industrial Bank of Taiwan is gearing up to buy into a managed synthetic collateralized debt obligation in the coming months.

Firms in Korea have recently started structuring won-denominated constant maturity swap spread options as clients push for exotic structures to pick up yield.