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Roughly $15 million of Exide Technologies' bank debt traded up to the 69-70 level from 62-64 on Tuesday following the company's bankruptcy filing. The real driving force behind the trades was the timing of the filing and not the actual filing itself, which had been expected for months. Dealers explained that bank lenders would be entitled to collateral in certain foreign and U.S. subsidiaries if the company filed after April 12. By mid week, the market for the name rose as high as the 70-73 level. Calls to company officials were not returned by press time.

David Charles, head of risk management at Gen Re Securities in Tokyo, has joined Deutsche Bank's group market risk management team in London. A Deutsche Bank official in London said there is ongoing movement in and out of the group, declining to specify whether this is a new position. The group is responsible for managing all market risk across the bank's activities, of which the largest component is trading, the official added. Charles could not be reached for comment. The group is headed by Richard Evans, chief risk officer. Evans was traveling last week and could not be reached.

APS Asset Management, an asset manager in Singapore with USD500 million under management, launched its first hedge fund earlier this month. The fund will use over-the-counter equity puts and swaps. "It's a real long/short fund. We're not going to make big directional bets," said Wong Kok Hoi, cio and founder of the firm. The fund, dubbed APS Asia Pacific Hedge Fund, with USD10 million under management, will primarily focus on the cash equity market in Asia, especially Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, but will buy puts for Korea and Taiwan. "We'll create synthetic short positions," said Wong, noting that regulations in Korea and Taiwan restrict offshore players from borrowing stocks, therefore hindering short cash equity plays. "We'll start small," noted Wong, adding that it will invest in up to USD2-3 million in OTC products.

New York-based MBIA Asset Management, a subsidiary of MBIA Inc. with over USD40 billion in assets, plans to begin investing in synthetic collateralized debt obligations for the first time, according to a market official familiar with the firm's plans. MBIA Asset Management, which has been investing in cash CDOs for several years, is considering pulling the trigger on its first investment in a synthetic CDO by the fourth quarter, the official said. "They've been taking a close look at the synthetic market for quite some time. The banks are constantly marketing their new products to them. It's only a matter of time before they make the move," another market official noted. Cliff Corso, president of MBIA Asset Management, did not return calls by press time.

United Auto Group (UAG), an auto dealer in Detroit with 123 franchises in the U.S. and 55 internationally, is considering entering an interest-rate swap on the back of a recent USD300 million bond offering or unwinding several existing interest-rate swaps to get the desired fixed to floating-rate debt ratio, said James Davidson, executive v.p. of finance.

Derivatives houses, including JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, have agreed to eliminate the acceleration and repudiation/moratorium triggers in European credit-default swap contracts for investment-grade corporates from today, aligning the European and U.S. markets. Demand from U.S. investors for collateralized debt obligations has driven the rating agencies to recommend a more standard contract, said lawyers and traders in London. "Part of the endeavor is to assist in creating a homogenous market so [investors] can purchase credit derivatives in either market," said Habib Motani, partner and head of derivatives at Clifford Chance.

Bank of America has added a layer of management in an effort to revitalize its troubled Japanese credit derivatives business. "There was a false start," said William Fall, global head of structured products in London and the regional head of the global markets group, referring to the establishment of a credit derivatives operation in Tokyo last year. The operation failed to take off because BofA did not have the right people for the job, he added. Fall flew into Tokyo two weeks ago for an extrodinary meeting with local managers. A derivatives professional who recently left BofA, said Fall is an exceptional market leader and will make a success of the business. In the reorganization, Kenichi Tatsuzawa, head of global markets for Japan, now reports to Fall. Previously he reported to Duncan Goldie-Morrison, head of the global markets group and responsible for the bank in Asia. Tatsuzawa was traveling and did not respond to voicemail messages on his cell phone.

Deutsche Bank is working on a new way of creating capital guaranteed products, which it plans to launch this summer and market to investors as an over-the-counter swap. At the moment most capital guaranteed products are structured using either an option and a zero-coupon bond or with constant proportion portfolio insurance (CPPI). The new method, dubbed timing invariant portfolio protection (TIPP), is an evolution of CPPI, according to Xuan Karen Fang, v.p. in structured equity products in London.

Demand for dollar/yen double-no-touch options increased last week as the currency pairing remained rangebound. Typical barriers on the trade were set at JPY130-135 with maturities of two weeks to one month, with sizes between USD5-10 million, according to one trader who saw at least 10 buyers. "The Bank of Japan drew a line in the sand," he said, regarding the goal of Japanese officials to keep the yen from appreciating. Spot was JPY129.06 Wednesday.

Credit Lyonnais is establishing a multi billion-dollar fund that will invest in the high-yield, investment-grade and credit-derivatives markets in the U.S. and Europe. The French bank, which does not currently have a significant presence in those products in the U.S., has hired three investment-grade traders from Deutsche Bank and a senior credit derivatives salesman from Merrill Lynch to manage the fund, according to fixed-income officials with knowledge of the group's plans. The fund, which will launch in May, will start with at least USD5 billion to build a global investment platform across all credit products, and will include trading desks in New York and London. The group will report to Omar Abukhadra, global head of credit markets and credit derivatives, who could not be reached. Once the group is in place, it is expected it will make additional senior hires, including analysts.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is working on what will be the first hybrid securitization that provides investors with exposure to hedge funds and private equity returns. Investors would gain exposure to hedge funds for the first four or five years of the deal with the money being transferred to private equity afterward through bonds backed by the assets. Mehraj Mattoo, managing director and global head of the alternative investment group in London, said the problem with private equity investments is they take several years to start producing high returns as the capital is held on deposit until it is drawn down. This structure gets around that problem by investing the money in hedge funds until it is needed.

Fred Dubignon, global co-head of fx sales at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London, has resigned and left the industry. One official said, "he has made his USD10 million and wants to spend more time with his family."