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Over lunch, several clearing officials pondered tactics to eat in to the monopoly DTCC has as clearinghouse for the USD17 trillion credit-default swap market.

A loan-only credit-default swap index, to be called LCDX, is expected to launch by year-end, said Andrew Scott, v.p. in the office of general counsel at Merrill Lynch in New York.

SG Corporate & Investment Banking has reeled in Polly Wong, an ex-director in the investor products group at ABN AMRO in Hong Kong.

A business reorganization at U.S. cigarette maker Altria may see debt retired and credit protection holders with worthless contracts--a phenomenon known as orphaning.

--Meyrick Chapman, fixed-income strategist at UBS in London, commenting on the crush of speculative players looking to buy long-dated Spanish sovereign protection.

Speculative players have driven up the price of Spanish long-dated credit-default swap protection by snapping up illiquid CDS on sovereign debt.

Asia Pacific corporates are growing internationally and also in terms of sophistication.

The price of credit-default protection on VNU, the world's largest market research company, blew out more than 60 basis points Tuesday after it announced details of new financing arrangements.

ABN AMRO and UBS in New York are marketing investment products which play on investors' concerns of equity or commodity market downturns.

Canadian regulators may step up regulatory requirements for structured investment notes after voicing concerns they are being sold without adequate disclosure or explanation.

China watchers are buzzing about the move to allow equity shorting, a major development that could ultimately open a number of trading strategies.

Citigroup has hired Glen Sorensen, v.p. in syndication at RBC Capital Markets in London, as a credit derivatives trader in Sydney, according to a senior fixed income official at Citi.