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Bank of Ireland is looking at using credit derivatives to systematically hedge its credit exposure for the first time. The bank is considering buying protection to hedge 0-20% risk weighted assets, such as government bonds and bank paper, according to Kevin Twomey, an official in the bank's treasury.

Five-year credit protection on the Interpublic Group Of Cos. bounced out by over 200 basis points on March 7 on the back of worse than anticipated fourth-quarter earning announcements. Credit protection on the name blew as wide as 770bps, before recovering to 550bps Wednesday, noted a trader in New York. Interpublic default swaps moved in when the firm announced it would refinance a bond, resolving liquidity concerns.

JPMorgan's head of foreign exchange sales to German corporates in London, Andrea Mohr, has left the firm after only five months. Mohr, who joined from Bank of America (DW, 10/21) has joined 360 Treasury Systems, a Frankfurt-based trading platform for over-the-counter financial instruments. Mohr confirmed her move, but declined further comment. At JPMorgan, she reported to Eric Robin, co-head of fx sales to Europe at JPMorgan in London, who declined to comment on her departure.

Amtek Engineering, a Singapore-based precision metal stamping and manufacturing company with assets of around SGD500 million (USD287 million), recently entered a foreign exchange swap to convert U.S. dollars into its domestic currency. "We always hedge our fx exposure," said Roger Lim, head of the finance department.

Joshua Lukeman, v.p. in equity derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley in New York and author of "The Market Maker's Edge: Day Trading Tactics From a Wall Street Insider," has left the firm. Lukeman could not be reached for comment. Fabrizio Gallo, managing director and head of equity derivatives trading, did not return calls.

JPMorgan has hired David Herzberg, index equity derivatives trader at AIG Financial Products in London, for its flow derivatives trading group. Hertzberg will report to Clements Lansing, head of flow derivatives trading in London. Lansing declined comment. A JPMorgan spokeswoman in London declined comment.

Morgan Stanley has combined its equity derivatives sales teams servicing hedge funds and asset managers in the U.S. Tom Levy, head of European equity derivatives sales in London, has transferred to New York to head the American division. Levy referred calls to Mark Lake, spokesman, who declined comment.

"We won't do anything too exotic until we figure out how liquid the indices actually are."--Yin Wu, head of equity derivative sales at Rabobank in London, commenting on the bank's plans for derivatives referenced to a hedge fund index. For complete story, click here.

Salomon Smith Barney is close to completing its first managed mezzanine synthetic collateralized debt obligation in Asia. In the USD500 million five-year deal investors in the mezzanine notes will be able to rebalance up to 10% of the portfolio each year. "The recent deterioration in 'investment-grade land' and the underperformance of some managed deals, [means] some investors feel they can manage their investments more effectively themselves," said James Lee, managing director and head of Asia-Pacific CDO markets in Hong Kong. Investors have full control in selecting the credits in the initial portfolio.

UBS Warburg is bringing aboard Haitong Wang, a marketer at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, in a similar role covering China fixed income derivative products. Wang, who starts later this month, will report to Philip Tsao, managing director and joint head of the Asian debt capital markets group in Hong Kong, according to Mark Panday, spokesman at UBS. Tsao, who also joined from Goldman Sachs (DW, 1/28/02), declined comment.

Threadneedle Asset Management is likely to use interest rate and credit derivatives for its newly launched fixed-income hedge fund, called the Crescendo Credit Fund. Robert Stirling, head of fixed income at Threadneedle in London, and lead portfolio manager for the fund, said it has the capacity to use any type of over-the-counter derivative. Specifically, it is likely to use interest rate swaps to manage the fund's overall interest rate curve exposure and would also use credit default swaps to hedge credit risk and may use them to take positions.

SwapsWire, a company that provides trade capture and confirmation for interest rate swaps, plans to expand the range of products it can process to include credit-default swaps and equity derivatives. The move could dramatically reduce the number of trades with errors, such as the wrong reference entity, and therefore reduce operational risk, according to traders.