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The New Zealand Debt Management Office, which runs a nearly NZD36 billion (USD23.5 billion) debt portfolio, is getting ready to use foreign exchange and interest rate options for the first time.

Merrill Lynch is bringing aboard Vivian Ling, equity derivatives trader at DBS in Singapore.

Morgan Stanley's Stanford Siao, executive director-equity derivatives trading in Hong Kong, has left the firm, according to market officials.

National Savings and Investments, the government-backed savings provider in the U.K., discovered last Wednesday it was launching its most valuable investment product yet, due to the sudden market downturn.

The yen's rise in the spot market prompted foreign exchange market participants to purchase long-dated out-of-the-money yen calls last week, as a punt on the yen consolidating its strength, according to options traders.

Philip McBride Johnson, head of the exchange-traded derivatives practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Merrill Lynch has hired Julia Posacki, an interest rate derivatives structurer and marketer at Goldman Sachs in New York, as an associate marketing debt derivatives to corporates.

Mark-to-market volatility on single tranche CDOs has become a key factor in determining whether to enter a trade.

Demand for traditional structured credit products in Japan is slowing this year, a development that may lead to a large increase in equity-default linked deals, according to Moody's Investors Service and Rating and Investment Information, Japan's primary domestic credit rating agency.

Ali Sherwani, manager in the portfolio management division of the U.K.'s Export Credits Guarantee Department in London, asked for any AA minus or higher rated banks to give him a ring to talk about buying credit protection. The ECGD has some GBP21 billion (USD38 billion) of debt, most of which is issued by emerging market sovereigns. Sherwani said it entered it's first default swaps in August (DW, 9/8) and has entered some more pilot trades since then. It is now looking at entering more trades and wants to increase the number of counterparties it deals with to ensure the best execution.

Investment banks and asset managers are getting ready to offer equity-default swaps to retail investors.

*Marcus Klug, managing director at UNIQA Alternative Investments, summed up the problem of downgrades: "Obviously if something goes from AAA to CCC, you are screwed."