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Evolution Markets, an emissions brokerage firm in New York, plans to make a move into the weather derivatives brokering business in New York and open a London office.

JPMorgan recently hired Alex Park, as an equity derivatives marketer in Hong Kong overlooking the Korean market. He will report to David Chui, v.p. in the equity derivatives group in Hong Kong, when he starts in the coming weeks. Chui confirmed the hire but declined further comment. Joanne Shephard, spokeswoman at JPMorgan in Hong Kong also declined comment.

Sydney-based Basis Capital, a relative-value arbitrage hedge fund in Sydney with USD20 million under management, has recently increased the size of a credit arbitrage trade that uses credit-default swaps and is considering boosting it further. "This trade did work and Basis Capital is continuing to add to the trade," said Steve Howell, cio in Sydney, adding that as the hedge fund continues to receive inflows of cash from investors, it is putting part of that money to work for a trade on Australian packaging firm AMCOR. "There's good relative value and there's still upside return," noted Howell.

BNP Paribas has bulked up its interest-rate derivatives trading operation in Singapore with the appointments earlier this month of Roy Chan, senior dealer in the global exotics group at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, and Teck Chong Lee and Kang Yeong Woo, both v.p.s in the rates trading group at JPMorgan in Singapore. All three join as senior traders in the interest-rate derivatives trading group and are an expansion to the four-member team. The trio reports to Monty Argawal, head of interest-rate derivatives trading-Asia Pacific in Singapore. "We're trying to capture more of this business," said Argawal, noting that he has expanded the desk as the Asian interest-rate derivatives market is growing.

Bank Austria Creditanstalt plans to start offering equity-linked notes to Polish, Czech and Hungarian investors within the next month. Andreas Fleischmann, head of fixed income and derivatives and financial engineering in Vienna, said the demand for the products comes from investors, such as pension funds, looking for yield enhancement.

Banc of America Securities is looking to hire two quants to cover the global credit derivatives market from both New York and London, according to Leif Andersen, managing director in the firm's quantitative research department. Andersen, who was hired two weeks ago to fill a newly created position in New York covering global credit derivatives, (DW, 4/22), said the new hires would assist him in his research of the burgeoning credit market.

Banc of America Securities plans to merge its equity cash and derivatives departments to form a global equities division and is looking to hire a head of the department. "Once we fill the position, equity financial products, which covers derivatives and convertibles, and the cash equities groups in both the U.K. and the U.S., will fall under one umbrella," said spokesman John Roehm. He declined comment on the reason for the restructuring.

HSBC plans to follow Citibank and Deutsche Bank's lead and issue callable bonds. Ian Banks, treasurer at HSBC in Seoul, said the firm plans to issue the bonds in the coming months. He described this as a logical step after the announcement that the Korea Futures Exchange is going to launch options on Korean Treasury bond futures in May (DW, 2/24). The listed options will be used to hedge over-the-counter derivatives used to structure the bonds.

Vuk Bulajic, who resigned last week from his position as head of U.S. equity derivatives at BNP Paribas in New York (DW, 4/22), has joined CDC Ixis Capital Markets North America to replace William Toy, head of U.S. equity derivatives sales and trading. Toy, who resigned earlier this week, will stay on as a consultant, according to Bulajic. He added that Toy's resignation was a "completely amicable" decision and that Toy will continue to work closely with the group. Bulajic said he plans to hire approximately 50 equity derivatives traders and marketers over the next year. The firm currently has four traders and one marketer. "We're absolutely in our infancy right now. That's the beautiful part of all this," Bulajic said. Toy did not return calls.

Dollar/yen implied volatility fell across the curve last week as a result of the upcoming Golden Week holiday in Japan and positive macroeconomic data coming out of Tokyo. Traders said one-year implied vol dropped to 9.25% on Wednesday from around 10% the week before, while three-month implied vol fell to 8.5% from 9.25%. One-week vol was 7% at the end of the day Wednesday, from 8% the previous Friday. Fund managers were unwinding long call positions, according to one trader, typically selling dollar calls with strikes ranging from JPY135-140. Spot was trading at JPY129.65 on Wednesday.

Cantor Fitzgerald has hired Ian Silva, a credit derivatives trader for Banc of America Securities in London, and transferred Mike Rohan, a government bond trader from Cantor's London-based fixed income group, to join its growing New York credit derivatives brokerage team, according to Dan LaVecchia, executive managing director and director of U.S. operations.

Daiwa Securities America, the wholly owned subsidiary of Daiwa Securities in New York, is planning a return to the synthetic collateralized debt obligation market after a more than three-year absence. Hiroyuki Nomura, senior v.p. in structured finance, said the firm would look to both structure and invest in synthetic CDOs. Market officials estimated this could happen as early as the fourth quarter but Nomura declined comment on this point.