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Calyon is planning to build a European high-yield business and has charged Tim Hall, previously managing director and head of emerging markets and high-yield capital markets at ING Bank in London, to start it from scratch. Hall, global head of high-yield debt and leveraged finance capital markets, started late last month.

Calyon has hired Sean Murphy, foreign exchange sales at National Australia Bank in Sydney, in a similar role in Hong Kong.

--Mathew Webb, structurer in the fund-linked products group at Credit Suisse First Boston in London, commenting on the Financial Services Authority's decision to implement a European Commission directive on short-selling in UCITS funds quickly.

AXA Investment Managers is looking to use equity default swaps in its credit/equity arbitrage fund in the New Year.

French banking heavyweight Calyon is looking to build a transatlantic gas, power and oil trading operation and has nabbed Etienne Amic, former head of power trading at TotalFinaElf to build the business, according to DW sister publication Power Finance & Risk.

A group of Canadian heavyweights have formed Diversified Global Asset Management and kicked off a USD500 million fund of funds.

Citigroup is planning to offer a partially guaranteed structured note using a constant portfolio proportion insurance structure to provide the capital protection.

Citadel Investment Group, the fifth largest hedge fund in the U.S. with some USD9.5 billion under management, has hired Pavandeep Sethi, an equity volatility trader at JD Capital Management in Greenwich, Conn. reportedly to spearhead a new volatility arbitrage business.

Strategies involving both equity and credit products have become increasingly popular, under the pressure of both an overall decrease in market volatility and structural changes among alternative investment strategies.

Implied volatility in the Japanese equity market has fallen to seven-year lows in recent weeks on the back of strong appetite for structured products, which short volatility.

Commerzbank is planning to set up a Hong Kong equity derivatives desk.