Free content

Lehman Brothers has transferred J.S. Kim, senior v.p. in fixed income in Tokyo, to Seoul in preparation for the bank's onshore Korean derivatives launch.

Macquarie Bank is gearing up to launch and distribute the first managed synthetic collateralized debt obligation in the growing Aussie retail market in the coming weeks.

The number of patents on investment instruments, including derivatives, is growing rapidly and lawyers and bankers are split over whether this will encourage firms to spend more time and money researching new instruments or whether it will prevent the development of liquid markets.

Guardians of minor currencies, including the Israeli shekel, Chinese renminbi and most of the European Union accession currencies, are starting to take more of an interest in hedge funds' foreign exchange trading activities because they fear it could put undue pressure on the country's exchange rate.

Credit-default swaps on Nextel Communications made a post-election leap when its spread tightened to 90 basis points last week from 150 basis points at the start of October.

State Street Global Advisors has set up a novel inflation fund to offer more efficient inflation hedging to pension funds.

London-based Shooter Fund Management has rolled out a volatility arbitrage fund and may look to trade variance options, instruments pioneered by Bank of America and Citigroup (DW, 10/1).

Less than a month after opening its first banking branch in China, UBS has set its sights on India.

The Japanese credit-default swap market, as with many credit markets, has grown rapidly over the past five years.

The importance of closer of regional co-operation and integration. By Tadao Chino, president of the Asian Development Bank

Astoria Energy has tapped Calyon to help it refinance a $700 million highly priced B-loan, which it obtained earlier this year to fund the construction of a 500 MW gas-fired plant in Queens, New York.