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Hedge funds and bank prop desks were selling short-term volatility last week across all currency pairs, driving short-term implied volatility levels to historic lows.

JPMorgan has reorganized its structured credit businesses in New York, combining sales and origination in one group.

Daiwa SMBC is considering structuring notes on emerging market currencies as clients are becoming more comfortable looking overseas for yield.

Bear Stearns this week shifted a senior managing director in fixed income in New York to Hong Kong.

Calyon has hired Fred Simkin as an executive director in product management and syndicate from a similar role at Wachovia Securities in London. He starts Monday and will focus on building global sales of cash, hybrid and synthetic asset-backed securities collateralized debt obligations. He is an addition to the team, reporting to Ally Chow, head of product management and syndicate in London, who declined comment.

Steve Sterling has joined Bear Stearns and will serve in a similar position as he held at Lehman Brothers. He had been head of Lehman's U.S. loan effort before leaving last year.

HSBC's head of investor sales in Hong Kong is joining RBC Capital Markets.

An index of credit-default swaps on preferred securities is set to start trading next month.

Morgan Stanley in London has nabbed Alex Kirgiannakis, a flow credit-default swap trader at Deutsche Bank. He started at the firm Monday and reports to Patrick Lynch, executive director and head trader of the corporate credit group in London, said Carlos Melville, spokesman at Morgan Stanley. Stacey Coglan, spokeswoman at Deutsche Bank, did not comment on a replacement for Kirgiannakis by press time.

Investors looking to add synthetic credit to their cross-asset class portfolios have emerged as the first players to show interest in total-return swaps on the iTraxx index, a play debuted by JPMorgan last month. The swaps allow them to buy or sell exposure to European credit through a vehicle that tracks returns on the iTraxx CDS index.

ABN AMRO is rolling out its novel constant proportion debt obligation structure to antipodean investors. The firm is marketing AUD100 million (USD76 million) and NZD100 million (USD63 million) of the fully rated capital-protected notes.

Commerzbank has hired Edwin Bernard, head of equity derivative product structuring at ING Wholesale Banking in Singapore, in a new senior role.