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Government hopes fresh funding will tip balance on marginal infrastructure projects

BNP Paribas has hired Andrew Goldberg, head of foreign exchange options trading at Citigroup in New York. Kerrie McHugh, BNP spokeswoman, said Goldberg will start mid-summer as managing director and North American head of fx options, reporting to Hubert de Lambilly, global head of fx options in London. He is an addition to the desk. Mark Thomlinson, senior fx options trader at Citi, is acting head in the interim. Joseph Christinat, Citi spokesman, did not immediately return calls.

Morgan Stanley has hired Jeff Walsh and Matt Bagley to work on its high-yield trading desk.

Taiwanese life insurance firms' hefty appetite for global synthetic CDOs is approaching its end, as foreign investment quotas are being reached. Insurers have a limit of 35% of investment assets in overseas products, regardless of whether they are hedged in local currency, and credit officials noted the party appears to be coming to an end.

South Africa's Standard Bank has established an onshore fx and rates business in Taiwan as part of the bank's push in the region. Charles Chen, head of treasury at Toronto Dominion Bank in Taipei, has joined as head of global markets for Taiwan to spearhead the effort and has recruited a team of five, according to Michele Maffei, managing director and head of global markets for Asia, based in Hong Kong. Maffei transferred from London at the onset of the year to build up the bank's presence in Asia (DW, 1/27). He is in the process of recruiting over 20 staff for sales and trading functions in rates, fx and credit.

U.S. equity derivatives dealers are seeing a pickup in interest from hedge funds and prop desks in one-by-two put spreads on the Standard & Poor's 500. In a one-by-two put spread, investors sell twice as many lower-strike puts as buying upper-strike puts, to express a view realized variance and volatility will remain low and range-bound. The premium made from selling the puts reduces the cost of the trade in the event realized variance rises. Dealers are becoming more comfortable with the product and are able to offer larger trades at tighter spreads, and clients are responding to the view that realized vol will remain low and in range. One trader said USD2 million of put spreads traded last week.

Morgan Stanley has recruited Kevin Lepsoe, associate director in the credit and rates structuring group at Barclays Capital in Hong Kong, for a new role. Lepsoe joins as a v.p. and trader for the structured credit team in Hong Kong, according to firm officials. The credit team is understood to be in build-up mode, following the transfer in recent months of Brian Neer, executive director, from New York to Hong Kong, to fill a new position as head of structured credit for Asia. Neer, to whom Lepsoe now reports, declined all comment.

Merrill Lynch has lost Ed Selby, a mid-level credit correlation trader in London. The departure comes hot on the heels of Neil Walker, managing director and global co-head of correlation trading, exiting last month (DW, 4/21).

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