Risk News
Latest news on people, markets and technology from the financial risk management and global derivatives markets
- Obama names next heads of SEC and CFTC
US president-elect Barack Obama has named the next leaders of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) following his call for “a 21st century regulatory framework to ensure a crisis like this can never happen again”. ... - US muni debt now priced as riskier than corporates
Protection on US municipal debt is currently more costly than that on US investment-grade corporate bonds. Spreads on Markit's five-year MCDX index, which references credit default swaps (CDS) on municipal bonds, were at 275 basis points as of December 19. Spreads on the investment-grade CDX.NA index were 222bp. ... - BoA names regional leadership positions
Bank of America (BoA) has appointed the regional heads that will take charge once its purchase of Merrill Lynch is complete, which is expected to be in the first quarter of 2009. ... - SG names Wilson head of metals research
David Wilson has joined Société Générale as head of metals research. ... - Madoff fraud puts focus on due diligence
As a swathe of investors reported sizable exposures to New York-based broker and hedge fund manager Bernard Madoff, several market players that had conducted due diligence on his firm told <em>Risk</em> that it had raised danger signals as far back as the late 1990s. ... - Isda prepares to settle Ecuador CDS
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda) is drawing up a settlement protocol for credit default swaps (CDS) based on the sovereign debt of Ecuador, which refused to make a $30.6 million scheduled interest payment last week. ... - Hawaiian Telcom LCDS recovery set at 40.125%
A final price of 40.125% was set on cash-settled loan credit default swaps (LCDS) trades referencing Hawaiian Telcom during an auction today. ... - S&P predicts defaults to snowball in 2009 and 2010
A fifth of European speculative-grade companies could default by 2010, a report released on Wednesday by Standard and Poor’s (S&P) stated. ... - Citi rings the changes in structured products
Citi has announced a host of changes to its structured products business, including the appointment of Jean-Luc Bernardi as head of structuring for Europe, the Middle East and Asia (EMEA). Bernardi has developed and led the EMEA equity derivatives structuring team since 2006 and will be responsible for combining former equities, hybrids and fixed-income, currencies and commodities structuring into an integrated cross-asset class structuring team. He will report to Stefan Wagner, head of EMEA structured products, and Erwin Parviz, global head of structuring. ... - EEX names Christoph Mura COO
Christoph Mura has become the chief operating officer (COO) of the Leipzig-based derivatives exchange, European Energy Exchange (EEX), effective January 1. ... - Fed's near-zero target startles markets
<p>Yesterday's news that the US Federal Reserve would cut its target fund rate to between zero and 0.25% rallied US stocks and sent Treasury bill yields to new lows.</p> ... - Morgan Stanley falls as losses continue
Morgan Stanley's shares fell 6.8% this morning after it announced heavy losses and continuing mortgage-related writedowns. ... - CDS spreads tighten on French automakers
French auto manufacturers were trading significantly tighter in intraday trading today after the government provided credit guarantees worth €779 million ($1071.9 million) to two of the country’s biggest firms. ... - New York Fed buys AIG assets at half price
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has paid $19.8 billion to troubled insurer AIG for residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) with a face value of $39.3 billion. ... - $2.1 billion loss ends 2008 on sour note for Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs has posted a $2.12 billion net loss for the fourth quarter - its first since going public in 1990 - citing "extraordinarily difficult operating conditions, including a sharp decline in values across virtually every asset class".<br /> ...