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The German hedge fund product market is continuing to grow, due to regulatory changes that clarify hedge fund investments for both retail and institutional investors.

Lehman Brothers is transferring Assan Din, head of credit derivatives for non-Japan Asia, to London to be head of integrated credit trading for Europe and has hired Luca Favero, a credit-default swap trader at Credit Suisse First Boston in London, as a crossover and investment-grade cash and derivatives trader.

Morgan Stanley has hired Raj Dave, a capital structure arbitrage trader at Commerzbank Securities in New York, for a similar role.

Deutsche Bank has started allowing investors in managed accounts to tailor their risk and participation to hedge funds by entering offsetting overlay trades.

Joachim Willnow, co-head of the recently created structured solutions group at Merrill Lynch in London, has left the firm just two months after it merged its credit and equity marketing teams.

--Johan Groothaert, global head of structured and investment products at Deutsche Bank in London, predicting the future of the European market after the prospectus directive comes into force.

A European directive that allows firms to publish a single prospectus for all E.U. countries will considerably reduce the costs and paper work required to distribute products outside of the country in which they were structured.

Nvesta, a U.K. structured products boutique, has launched an income product based on an equity-linked medium-term note and deposit.

Widespread expectation of U.S. rate hikes is creating novel short-term derivatives trading opportunities.

Demand for exotic underlyings such as hybrids of equity and funds, or exposure to emerging markets has drawn attention away from exotic pay-offs, according to Stephane Junod, head of the exotics structuring group at Deutsche Bank.

Duncan Capital Group, a privately owned merchant bank with investment banking and fund management business lines, is considering utilizing total return swaps and over-the-counter options as a means of taking short and portfolio private equity exposures in its planned DC Opportunity Fund.

Standard Chartered has hired Miliat Tjakara, marketer at Barclays Capital in Jakarta, as head of sales, and Jony Attan, structurer at HSBC in Jakarta, as head of structured products for its Indonesian operation.