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Rival banks scoop Merrill Lynch defectors
LONDON - Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital have made two hires from Merrill Lynch, market sources tell FX Week .
Investors keen on double-short euro ETNs
NEW YORK - Morgan Stanley's Market Vectors double-long leveraged euro exchange-traded notes (ETNs) have outperformed their double-short counterparts by almost 30 times in trading volumes.
More departures from JP Morgan
LONDON - Mass redundancies are continuing to affect the foreign exchange desks of JP Morgan in London, with two former Bank One staff reputed to have left the US dealer this month.
Small US banks free to use standardised approach
WASHINGTON, DC - The Federal Reserve has announced it will permit smaller US financial institutions to implement the standardised approach for Basel II compliance, acknowledging misgivings raised by banks over previous proposals.
NAB strengthens UK forex team
LONDON - National Australia Bank (NAB) has expanded its London foreign exchange team, with three hires covering Europe-domiciled business.
New generation CEP for forex liquidity
A white paper being released today (June 30) is set to evangalise the benefits of using adaptive complex-event processing (CEP) technologies for liquidity management in foreign exchange.
Nordea signs up to 360T
COPENHAGEN - Nordea has joined the 360 Treasury Systems (360T) TEX multi-dealer cross-product trading system, in response to a spike in interest among mid-cap clients for the platform, the bank said.
HSBC emerges in Georgia
TBILISI - HSBC is capitalising on rising demand for forex services in the former Soviet Union by opening its first commercial banking branch and head office in Georgia.
Quant demand in full force
GLOBAL - The high demand for quantitative foreign exchange specialists continues, fuelled by concerns over risk controls and growth in local currency derivatives and hybrid derivatives trading, industry sources have told FX Week .
Icap breaks into retail forex market
LONDON - Icap is breaking into the lucrative retail foreign exchange market by teaming up with London-based retail equity and FX trading sister company City Index, senior officials tell FX Week .
Two FX options traders quit Merrill Lynch
LONDON - Merrill Lynch has lost two star foreign exchange options traders in London, market sources tell FX Week .
UniCredit eyes up US
NEW YORK - UniCredit has turned its sights to the US by making key foreign exchange hires, after driving its sales and trading businesses in Asia.
Calyon adopts Caplin Trader front end
LONDON - Calyon plans to use multi-asset class web-based front end Caplin Trader, by London-based web technology vendor Caplin Systems, for its new online single-dealer portal for fixed-income trading.
Foreign exchange: the entrepreneurs' market
Does anyone get the impression Michael Spencer is not only taking over the foreign exchange industry but also keeping developments in the family?
BoA hires London forex duo
LONDON - Bank of America (BoA) is hitting back after making severe cuts to its foreign exchange team in January by boosting its sales and trading franchise in London with two senior hires.
Barclays Capital loses two in European sales
LONDON - Barclays Capital has lost two senior foreign exchange salespeople in London, according to industry sources.
TD Securities expands in forex options
LONDON - TD Securities has hired David Hitchins as managing director and global head of foreign exchange options in London to spearhead the global expansion of the dealer's FX options business.
Solid Q2 for FX
NEW YORK - Lehman Bros and Goldman Sachs attest to solid foreign exchange revenue gains in the second quarter, according to results released last week.
SuperDerivatives upgrades forex platform
LONDON - Seven banks have begun using upgraded pricing and risk management software offered by SuperDerivatives that includes expanded exotics support and integrated price discovery, marketing, reporting and online execution.
Deutsche strengthens in Russia
MOSCOW & BRASILIA - Deutsche Bank has boosted its FX operations in Russia and Brazil by recruiting staff from JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch.
Russia confirms rouble conversion
ST PETERSBURG - The Russian Government has confirmed plans to convert the rouble into a reserve currency in the near future.
Staff shedding continues at JP Morgan
NEW YORK AND LONDON - In one of the first cuts to its own FX team, JP Morgan is said to have axed a senior FX salesperson in New York, as part of a continuing attempt to reduce headcount after acquiring troubled bank Bear Stearns.
Westpac boosts FX sales ahead of merger
LONDON AND NEW YORK - Australian dealer Westpac is bolstering its FX sales presence in the US and UK, less than a month after announcing plans to merge with domestic rival St George.