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Liquidity in the Asian credit-default swap market has jumped on the back of the Dow Jones iTraxx Asia launch in July (DW, 7/11).

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has asked regulators in British Columbia, Canada, to ease its proposals on applying securities laws to derivatives because they would burden and confuse investors and could impede the derivatives markets.

Corporates and banks in Europe have been left in limbo yet again over the adoption of International Accounting Standard 39, after the European Commission's Accounting Regulatory Committee proposed two amendments to the rule.

Robeco Alternative Investments is planning to launch an innovative collateralized debt obligation in November, which will be actively managed to offer investors some short-term credit exposure.

TD Securities has hired James Blue, equity derivatives trader at Bear Stearns in Tokyo, as a managing director and head of equity derivatives trading in Tokyo.

Telstra Super, the Melbourne-based pension arm of Aussie telecom giant Telstra Corp., is considering using options to hedge a portion of its equity portfolio for the first time.

Distributors in the traditionally staid U.K. retail market are offering investors products with hybrid payoffs combining income and capital growth.

The U.K. tax authority is looking at changing the taxation of derivatives in investment funds, which could sound the death knell to the newly authorized onshore hedge funds, before they even take off.

At the end of July, the International Index Company launched the Dow Jones iTraxx Credit Default Swap Index for Australia.

Star Energy Group, a London-based gas, oil and electricity producer, is looking to hedge its dollar exposure for 2005 after a year's break due to the dollar's weakness in the spot market.

A Financial Accounting Standards Board task force is set to meet this week to discuss modifying and possibly delaying a vague recommendation that could require fixed-income investors to report short-term losses in their portfolios.