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Kent Oz, head of financial institutional sales for BNP Paribas' equity derivatives group in New York, resigned last week, according to a firm official. Oz, who has been with the firm for more than five years, had been reporting to Vuk Bulajic, head of U.S. equity derivatives in New York. Bulajic resigned two weeks ago to join CDC IXIS Capital Markets North America as the head of equity derivatives sales and marketing (DW, 4/29).

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has hired two Gen Re Securities pros to set up a collateralized debt obligation presence in the U.S. Kevin Stocklin and Robert Wolf, structurers at Gen Re, have joined as a director and vice president respectively, according to Jeremy Vice, co-head of CDOs in London.

Joe Mahfouz, head of equity derivatives for the Americas at Commerzbank Securities in New York, has resigned. Mahfouz ended his three-year stint at the bank about two weeks ago. "We built a great group. Over the last three years, we exceeded our budget every year. I wish them well," Mahfouz said. He declined to comment on the reason for his departure. An official at Commerzbank said Mahfouz's position has not been filled and his duties are being handled by the remaining staff.

Nikko Salomon Smith Barney is bringing aboard Terry Koh, credit derivatives trader at JPMorgan, in a similar role in Tokyo in the coming weeks. "This is a great move for Salomon," noted a credit derivatives head at a rival firm, adding, "Terry's a solid trader, he'll make a strong impact over there." Another credit derivatives head noted, "With Koh aboard, Salomon should be a formidable competitor." Nikko has been planning to expand its credit desk since the beginning of the year on the back of growing client interest (DW, 1/27).

"This shocked the market."--Scott Sohn, manager of interest-rate trading at the Korea Development Bank in Seoul, commenting on the reaction to falling interest-rates in Korea causing millions of dollars of mark-to-market losses in swaps books. For complete story, click here.

Evolution Markets, an emissions brokerage firm in New York, plans to make a move into the weather derivatives brokering business in New York and open a London office.

JPMorgan recently hired Alex Park, as an equity derivatives marketer in Hong Kong overlooking the Korean market. He will report to David Chui, v.p. in the equity derivatives group in Hong Kong, when he starts in the coming weeks. Chui confirmed the hire but declined further comment. Joanne Shephard, spokeswoman at JPMorgan in Hong Kong also declined comment.

Sydney-based Basis Capital, a relative-value arbitrage hedge fund in Sydney with USD20 million under management, has recently increased the size of a credit arbitrage trade that uses credit-default swaps and is considering boosting it further. "This trade did work and Basis Capital is continuing to add to the trade," said Steve Howell, cio in Sydney, adding that as the hedge fund continues to receive inflows of cash from investors, it is putting part of that money to work for a trade on Australian packaging firm AMCOR. "There's good relative value and there's still upside return," noted Howell.

BNP Paribas has bulked up its interest-rate derivatives trading operation in Singapore with the appointments earlier this month of Roy Chan, senior dealer in the global exotics group at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, and Teck Chong Lee and Kang Yeong Woo, both v.p.s in the rates trading group at JPMorgan in Singapore. All three join as senior traders in the interest-rate derivatives trading group and are an expansion to the four-member team. The trio reports to Monty Argawal, head of interest-rate derivatives trading-Asia Pacific in Singapore. "We're trying to capture more of this business," said Argawal, noting that he has expanded the desk as the Asian interest-rate derivatives market is growing.

Bank Austria Creditanstalt plans to start offering equity-linked notes to Polish, Czech and Hungarian investors within the next month. Andreas Fleischmann, head of fixed income and derivatives and financial engineering in Vienna, said the demand for the products comes from investors, such as pension funds, looking for yield enhancement.

Banc of America Securities is looking to hire two quants to cover the global credit derivatives market from both New York and London, according to Leif Andersen, managing director in the firm's quantitative research department. Andersen, who was hired two weeks ago to fill a newly created position in New York covering global credit derivatives, (DW, 4/22), said the new hires would assist him in his research of the burgeoning credit market.