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--John Olert, managing director and co-head North America corporate finance with Fitch Ratings, on the agency stepping up its high-yield coverage.

ABN AMRO Asset Management expects to shift funds out of corporate bonds and into higher quality securitized products such as mortgage-backed, asset-backed and commercial mortgage-backed securities over the next three to six months.

Ares Management, the L.A.-based investment shop that specializes in leveraged finance, is raising a new $650 million collateralized loan obligation called Ares Enhanced Loan Investment Strategy.

BNP Paribas is gearing up to offer market access derivatives linked to Chinese 'A' shares in the coming weeks on the back of receiving approval from regulators.

CDC IXIS Capital Markets is planning to open an office in Hong Kong in the coming weeks to boost its marketing efforts in Asia.

Diageo's pension fund is looking at using derivatives and increasing its exposure to bonds to reduce the volatility of its portfolio.

Bankers in Asia are getting ready to tap the Thai market for synthetic collateralized debt obligations on the back of regulatory changes.

Close Fund Management has launched a series of novel capital protected fund-of-hedge-funds products, which are believed to be the first instruments to give U.K. retail investors exposure to hedge funds under a capital gains tax regime.

Institutional funds' increasing exposure to hedge funds means some are beginning to consider foreign exchange volatility as a separate asset class, said Robert Hayes, head of strategic advice at Merrill Lynch in London.

In a year which has seen poor returns from most quantitative currency fund managers, those running high-frequency trading models have seen their strategy vindicated.