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The Asset Managers Forum is studying ways to automate swap confirms to recommend a best practice to its members. "The most pain and risk in swaps is the confirm process," said George Hall, v.p. at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a co-chair of the AMF's swaps committee.

Vertical Crossings.com, the last major independent Internet-based securitized bond trading firm, is shutting its operations after its co-founder Patrick Downes and three senior colleagues resigned to join futures powerhouse Fimat USA to launch a structured products trading group. Harry Kaplan, co-founder at VCross, could not be reached for comment. Kaplan recently sent a letter to VCross stockholders, a copy of which was obtained by DW sister publication BondWeek, elaborating on the "severe financial difficulties" of VCross that prevented it from Òcontinuing as a going concern." The letter said Kaplan will oversee the wind-down as the sole director. A former VCross insider says the wind-down largely involves finding a buyer for the firm's Internet auction technology.

Lehman Brothers has transferred Mark Ames, European head of structured credit trading in London, to New York to become head of fixed income client strategy. He will report to Ken Umezaki, head of fixed income strategy, and Tom Humphrey, head of fixed income sales, according to Tarun Jotwani, head of international credit markets in London. Ames, Umezaki and Humphrey could not be reached ahead of the long weekend.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

Credit-default swap spreads sprung out, and then back, after a U.S. court imposed a delay on ABB putting one of its units into bankruptcy. Swaps traded as wide as 665 basis points, before moving back to the 645bps level before the court ruling, according to London-based traders.

ABN AMRO has hired Richard Whittle, executive director at UBS, as head of exotic credit derivatives. It is a new position at ABN, according to Alex Evans, spokesman in London. Whittle will report to Arne Groes, global head of credit markets trading in London. Whittle could not be reached by press time.

Swaps houses including Bank of America, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered have set their sights on pioneering a 15-year local currency interest rate swap market after the first 12-year deal was executed last week. Aaron Poon, Hong Kong head of rates trading at JPMorgan, said the move to extend the interest rate swap curve was triggered by demand for higher yielding products and made possible by a jump in the volume of long-term local debt. Bond shops have underwritten over HKD2.17 billion (USD278 million) in long-term debt so far this year compared with only a few hundred million dollars last year.

HSBC Asset Management has entered an equity index swap to structure a six-year capital protected fund referenced to the FTSE 100. In the swap, HSBC receives the performance of the equity index and pays the floating rate on a basket of medium-term notes it will buy to provide capital protection, according to James Chu, director of structured products in London.

Bear Stearns has hired Masayuki Ishido, v.p. in integrated credit trading at Deutsche Bank in Tokyo, as an associate director for its credit derivatives trading desk in Tokyo. "Masa is an excellent trader and adds depth to our credit trading effort," said Ralph Orciuoli, managing director and Asian head of credit trading at Bear Stearns in Tokyo, to whom Ishido now reports.

Credit Suisse First Boston has transferred Andrew Martin, v.p. and credit derivatives trader in Singapore, to Hong Kong. The firm's main fixed income trading desk for Asia is in Singapore, but it has added a trader in Hong Kong to sit alongside its local sales team, according to Martin. The move is part of CSFB's increasing focus on China.

Deutsche Bank has hired Charlie Remnant, multi-asset class sales for retail products at Merrill Lynch in London, as v.p. in structured credit products to U.K. clients. He reports to Raj Dhown, head of fixed income sales in London.