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The International Swaps and Derivatives Association plans to start working on an agreement allowing hedge funds to trade with multiple derivatives counterparties more easily.

Domestic Korean banks, including Korea Development Bank and Kookmin Bank, are expecting the regulator to sign off on onshore credit derivatives transactions next year, because the Bank of Korea has started talking to international and domestic derivatives houses about relaxing the rules.

Nomura Securities has entered a yen-denominated interest rate swap on the back of a novel JPY7.7 billion (USD77 million) Japanese and Korean collateralized bond obligation.

Trading volumes in the nascent Dow Jones iTraxx CJ index have skyrocketed in recent weeks after domestic investors have been piling in to sell protection.

After Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications entered a USD35 billion merger of equals deal Wednesday, five-year credit default swaps on Nextel tightened to about 50 basis points Wednesday from 65-70bps the week before.

Merrill Lynch Investment Managers is preparing to launch the first long/short equity fund structured as a regulated onshore fund.

New York-based Primus Financial Products and London-based Solent Capital are separately working on synthetic collateralized debt obligation squared transactions.

--Simon Gleeson, partner at Allen & Overy in London, commenting on the benefits on the International Swaps and Derivatives Association drafting a give-up agreement.

An equity volatility startup led by former Ferox traders Antonio Medina and Vincenzo Di Gennaro (DW, 12/13) will use variance swaps and the full spectrum of equity options.

Royal Liver Asset Managers is looking to structure an open-ended investment fund with an overlay of rolling options to provide protection.

The U.S. options market is bracing itself for a drop in the number of fund managers executing covered calls because of a change in the tax law.

The Inland Revenue, the U.K. tax authority, will publish a favorable tax regime for onshore hedge funds, a move which surprised many officials because the Revenue published a harsh technical paper on this issue earlier this year.