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An expected uptick in mergers and acquisition may encourage corporates undergoing such transitions to hedge their exposures with credit derivatives.

Merrill Lynch has hired Andy Phelps for its collateralized debt obligation business from Goldman Sachs in New York.

Peter Scialla, managing director and head single stock equity derivatives volatility trader at Morgan Stanley in New York, has jumped to Goldman Sachs to co-head equity derivatives option trading, according to an official.

Tokyo-based multi-strategy hedge fund Triloka Capital plans to set up an office in Hong Kong or Singapore to boost its exposure to emerging Asian markets including China.

Relative value credit-default swaps trades that offer exposure to different parts of default-swap index curves are becoming increasingly popular.

--Giles Rothwell, global head of investor solution sales at Barclays Capital in London, commenting on life insurance companies looking at structured products.

When confirmations are exchanged electronically, whether by facsimile, e-mail, or a secure Web site, a threshold question is whether electronic transmission of the confirmation affects the extent to which the confirmation may be relied upon to evidence the existence and terms of the underlying transaction.

Chi-Won Yoon, managing director and head of equity risk management for UBS in Hong Kong, has been promoted to head of Asian equities.

Collateralized debt obligation originators are structuring deals with longer warehouse and/or ramp-up periods to give managers of structured finance-backed offerings more time to acquire bonds in the current tight-spread environment.

Synthetic collateralized debt obligation structurers hunting for assets ensured that any spread widening in credit derivatives was immediately quashed.

When we last reviewed foreign purchases, the most recent data available was for the month of December and the numbers highlighted that 2003 had been a year in which foreign demand reached record levels.

More than half of balanced and fixed-income funds did not disclose commissions or were late doing so last year, according to a new study by fund tracker Lipper.