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Joint statement of the 16th APEC ministerial meeting

Barclays Capital is preparing to close its first credit derivative transactions in Korea in the coming weeks.

BNP Paribas has started offering exotic interest-rate derivatives, which combine a range accrual coupon with a step-up feature to give investors a high yielding instrument if rates stay low.

American Century is relying on a pricing service for interest rate swaps from Bear Stearns.

The number of reference entities traded on a weekly basis in the credit derivatives market has increase 50% to 581, according to a recent Fitch Ratings study.

Fortis Bank is planning to join the growing number of institutions with an onshore derivatives operation in Seoul.

The fixing for the nascent Japanese credit derivatives index, the DJ iTraxx CJ Japan, has moved to daily from weekly in a bid to boost trading and product development.

The Special Opportunities Fund, a hedge fund with USD119 million under management, is considering purchasing credit derivatives in the next three to six months because of the volatility decline in the convertible bonds market.

Several derivatives houses, including JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and UBS, have stepped up their retail structured offerings in Hong Kong in recent months.

--Koen Zoutenbier, director in product development at MeesPierson in Amsterdam, commenting on a single-tranche collateralized debt obligation it has sold to its high-net-worth clients.

IXIS Asia is planning to set up a specialist sales team, which markets products such as structured notes, derivatives and collateralized debt obligations to China.