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Hedge funds may lose one of their most prized attributes, secrecy, if a U.K. proposal to force market players to reveal their positions in listed companies goes ahead.

HSBC is planning to sell equity-default swaps by the end of March.

HVB Group plans to launch what is thought to be the first retail credit-linked equity certificate.

Korea, already one of the fastest growing derivatives markets in Asia, is set to give derivatives activity another boost by allowing securities houses, both foreign and domestic, to offer structured products.

McDermott Will & Emery plans to hire 30 attorneys specializing in structured finance and derivatives for its New York office by end-2007.

The three public funds in New Mexico could be allowed to use derivatives if legislation to be jointly proposed by the USD10 billion New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association and the USD7.2 billion New Mexico Educational Retirement Board is approved.

Lehman Brothers has started trading fixed income derivatives in Seoul after spending last year setting up the desk.

PIMCO has structured a fund around a swap on the Dow Jones AIG Commodity Index.

Titan Capital Group, a New York-based hedge fund firm with USD700 million in assets under management, is planning to launch a volatility arbitrage fund.

SG Corporate and Investment Bank has hired Henry McWatters, executive director in equity flow sales at Goldman Sachs in London, and Javier Martín, equity flow salesman at Citigroup in London, for its flow sales team.

UBS has combined its fixed income and credit businesses and is revamping structured products and commodities offerings to bring in more deal flow.

--Christian Dalban, head of equity derivatives for Europe at JPMorgan in London, commenting on a Takeover Panel consultation paper about banks offering hedge funds the voting rights for companies when the funds are not entitled to them.