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Merrill Lynch in New York is offering investment notes linked to the Energy Sector Select Index, which references 31 energy and energy producing companies in the Standard & Poor's 500.

Rabobank International has applied for additional banking licenses to allow it to distribute structured products to Japanese institutional investors.

Interest in listing structured credit investments on exchanges is heating up according to delegates.

Wilmington Trust won popularity points by sponsoring two side-by-side virtual reality air simulators.

Many global options exchanges are planning to list and trade over-the-counter options over the next year, a recent Accenture study found.

U.K. tobacco company Gallaher Group announced last Wednesday it had received a takeover bid, prompting an uptick in trading of tobacco-related credit-default swaps.

Newcastle Building Society, a U.K. thrift, has structured an investment bond linked to a European emerging market index for pension consultant firm Mattioli Woods.

ABN AMRO has hired Taylor Lu, director in equity derivative sales at BNP Paribas, as head of equity derivative structured sales for Asia.

Robert Brennan, former WestLB head of derivatives for Asia, has resurfaced at Shinsei Bank in Tokyo as global head of asset liability management.

BNP Paribas has hired Stephane Goursat, senior structured salesman at SG Corporate & Investment Banking, as head of structured product sales to the U.K., Ireland and South Africa.

--Ewan Kirk, partner at Cambridge, U.K.-based startup Cantab Capital Partners, justifies locating the hedge fund somewhere other than St James's, London.

Implied volatility levels for options on the British pound and U.S. dollar have rocketed in the past two weeks, sending traders scurrying to meet a resurgence of demand for options.