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BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

BondWeek is the leading news publication for fixed-income professionals, covering new deals, structures, asset-backed securities, industry and market activity.

ABN AMRO has set up a global marketing group for hedge funds and has moved Alistair Mullen, global head of structured credit marketing, to spearhead the effort. Mullen said ABN has the expertise in each asset class and this effort will allow the firm to draw the pieces together and build on them. The firm has historically been weaker in gaining market share for leveraged clients versus traditional corporate clients and Mullen believes that by offering the products from a centralized unit it will be able to increase the number of funds with which it deals. Over the coming weeks Mullen will formulate the market share and penetration goals of the group. As part of the effort the firm has significantly increased its risk limits to hedge funds, said Mullen.

ABN AMRO has promoted Arthur Leiz, v.p. and credit-default swap trader in New York, to head up its U.S. desk. The move follows the departure of Chase Van Der Rhoer, the previous head, who jumped to HSBC Securities to be a credit derivatives trader, said an official familiar with the move.

James Newsome, chairman of the Commodities & Futures Trading Commission, sided with Alan Greenspan, chairman of the New York Federal Reserve, that Warren Buffett was wrong when he described derivatives as financial weapons of mass destruction. "I agree with Chairman Greenspan on this," said Newsome, at a breakfast meeting organized by the Futures and Options Association and the Futures Industry Association in London last week.

Major derivatives houses plan to start offering equity derivatives on Chinese A shares in the coming months. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley received licenses to trade the liquid A shares last week, following the granting of licenses to UBS and Nomura Securities last month. The licenses enable the firms to offer international clients exposure to China through equity derivatives, such as equity-linked notes, because the derivatives houses can now delta hedge derivatives positions via the underlying cash market. Previously they had been permitted to trade only B shares, which are illiquid. Firms have offered similar so-called market access products on other restricted markets, such as India, Taiwan and Korea for several years. "Access products will be a main driver for this market," said Justin Kennedy, managing director of Asia Pacific equity derivatives at Citigroup in Hong Kong.

One-month cable implied volatility jumped half a percentage point Monday to stand at 8.8%, up from 8.3% the same morning. The leap came on the back of an announcement by the U.K. Treasury that sterling needs to weaken in order for the U.K. to enter the European Union, according to a New York-based trader.

Matthew Cooleen, executive v.p. at Chubb Financial Solutions in New York, is preparing to debut a standalone insurance firm, labeled Sentient Capital, that will compete in the structured products arena. The move follows Chubb's decision to stop writing new credit derivatives business. Cooleen confirmed the plans, but declined further comment. He is in talks with banks about backing the project, which is expected to launch before year end.

Credit-default swap spreads on Ericsson tightened last week by around 75 basis points to 470bps even though the company's fundamentals have not improved. Traders attributed most of the tightening to yield hungry investors snapping up cross-over credits, adding that British Airways also came in to around 450bps from 575bps at the beginning of the month. Trading was light throughout the default swap market, with about USD10-15 million a day going through the broker market on both BA and Ericsson.

Deutsche Bank last week lost Masayuki Ishido, v.p. in integrated credit trading in Tokyo. He left the firm for personal reasons, according to officials at the bank.