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José Montemayor, Texas commissioner of insurance and chair of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' property and casualty committee, has helped calm the credit derivatives market by stating that the NAIC is unlikely to argue that credit derivatives should fall under the bailiwick of the insurance industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has cast a shadow over the multi-billion dollar structured note industry by ruling that investment banks cannot book upfront profits on the instruments.

Fixed income fund managers expect their pension fund clients to start using more derivatives, such as interest rate swaps, over the coming year.

The rapid growth of credit correlation products such as single-tranche CDOs has in part been the result of improvements in analytics allowing the risk of such products to be managed with greater accuracy and efficiency.

Credit derivative traders in Asia are expecting a wider array of tradable default swap names and sub-indices to hit the market in the coming months.

Angel Trains, a train leasing company, has entered an interest rate swap to convert a recent GBP250 million (USD434 million) bond into a synthetic floating rate liability

Michael Rosenberg, co-head of the global credit collateralized debt obligation group at UBS, has been transferred from the firm's Stamford, Conn. office to London.

The price of protection on companies linked with air travel jumped last week after a British Airways flight to Washington was grounded because of fears it was being targeted by terrorists.

FountainHead Capital, a New York-based hedge fund manager founded by ex-Credit Suisse First Boston derivatives pro Michael Graves, has closed down one of its funds.

Irv Arenberg and Associates, a long/short gold hedge fund manager that already utilizes listed derivatives, is considering entering its first over-the-counter contracts.

ABN AMRO has hired Michael Chae, fixed income derivatives marketer at Crédit Agricole Indosuez in Seoul, as head of financial institution sales for Korea.

Bank One is looking to fill around four quantitative interest-rate and foreign exchange derivatives seats this quarter.