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UBS has boosted its market-access desk in the region with a senior transfer from New York.

Federal Reserve rate rises may have boosted constant proportion portfolio insurance notes in the U.S., protecting them from last month's equity volatility.

The U.S. ABCDS market has surged over its European counterpart because of the availability of attractive underlying assets.

The start of the World Cup last Friday was being seen by derivatives dealers as an early start to the traditional summer slow-down.

Calyon's Guillaume Kaminer, head of index trading in the equity derivatives group in Hong Kong, has left, adding to the wave of equity departures at the firm this year in Asia. Officials close to the firm said Kaminer is on gardening leave and will be joining another house in the coming weeks. The bank and role could not be determined by press time.

JPMorgan pulled its deal for DaVita this morning after investor pushback caused the bank to rework the terms.

Two equity derivative flow traders, Silvan Herriger and Joergen Jaehnig, have left Deutsche Bank in London. Herriger, an index trader who also previously worked at JPMorgan, is thought to be headed to a hedge fund. Jaehnig, a single stock trader who previously worked at Citigroup, is reportedly set to join another firm in the City. Both were on gardening leave and could not be reached for comment.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association is planning tomorrow to publish a template for trading credit-default swaps on tranches of collateralized debt obligations. Louise Marshall, spokeswoman, said the final version being released incorporates minor changes from member feedback (DW, 5/26).

The Royal Bank of Scotland has boosted its Japanese fixed income business with two senior hires in new positions.

Implied volatilities on the iTraxx indices are closing in after mushrooming almost 20% in the past month, but the sharp moves in vols have failed to attract players into credit options. The rise in vols across the indices should have been a good opportunity for options playing, traders said, but a lack of liquidity held people back and continues to be a problem which dogs the market (DW, 3/31). "People can't take long-dated positions," noted one trading official. "They wanted to trade in and out every day and you just can't do that with credit options."

BNP Paribas has tapped two fixed income sales pros from Deutsche Bank in London to beef up marketing to the Middle East. Ahmed Muallah and Omar Chebli, both directors at Deutsche Bank, will sell structured products and derivatives to Middle East clients and report to Joe Lovrics, co-head of structured products and structured credit sales in London. Muallah and Chebli were on gardening leave and could not be reached, while Lovricks declined comment. An official close to the firm said Muallah will head the Middle East sales desk, while Chebli comes in as a senior marketer.

Morgan Stanley has structured a portfolio of deep out-of-the-money equity put options on North American corporates which offers investors a high return, providing most stocks remain above a barrier and the corporates remain solvent. It is being marketed to retail investors through Morgan Stanley distribution channels, and--although structured through options--it is designed to mirror credit-default swap portfolios.