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RBS announces new GFI sales force
LONDON, SINGAPORE & GREENWICH, CONNECTICUT - The Royal Bank of Scotland has outlined its sales structure following the acquisition of ABN Amro at the end of last year.
Deutsche Bank continues ETN issues
NEW YORK - Deutsche Bank has launched four commodity-linked exchange traded notes (ETNs), in response to growing demand from retail and institutional investors for exposure to the commodity markets.
Forex expansion continues at Citi
NEW YORK - Citi's foreign exchange business is seeing yet more changes, with new roles and an appointment in sales.
CFTC fines firm $260,000 for lack of capital
WASHINGTON & VIRGINIA - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has ordered a US retail foreign exchange trading company to pay $260,000 to settle charges relating to undercapitalisation.
Record FX returns no compensation for continuing subprime losses
BOSTON & NEW YORK - Record foreign exchange revenues have proved no match for the credit crisis, with billion-dollar writedowns causing two major banks to report big first-quarter losses in their fixed-income divisions this week.
BNP looks to the long term
LONDON & PARIS - BNP Paribas has restructured its Paris-based central bank and official institutions foreign exchange sales desk by bringing in a new co-head responsible for long-term interest rate product sales.
Banks vow to improve transparency
WASHINGTON, DC & FRANKFURT - The Institute of International Finance (IIF), a banking industry trade group, has promised to improve transparency over risk exposure and executive pay in the wake of the credit crisis.
Streambase targets Tier II with forex aggregator
LEXINGTON, MA - Technology vendor Streambase is targeting Tier II banks seeking to enter the algorithmic trading arena with a new foreign exchange aggregation product.
Forex options trading surges during turbulent month
CHICAGO & NEW YORK - Foreign exchange options trading surged on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), setting multiple forex trading records during a volatile March.
Forex bonuses intact
LONDON - Foreign exchange and rates staff avoided the sharp falls in salary and bonus packages suffered by peers in debt and credit last year, according to research by London-based recruitment company Napier Scott released last week.
India's Centurion Bank signs up to SuperD
LONDON & MUMBAI - Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBP) has gone live with SuperDerivatives' SD-Banks multi-asset derivatives portfolio management system and the SD-IR interest rates pricing and analytics module.
Citi targets EM settlement
NEW YORK & BOGOTA - Citi's domestic settlement service is set to gain a foothold in emerging markets where CLS is currently not active.
Trading records fall during turbulent month
NEW YORK & LONDON - Records tumbled on foreign exchange trading platforms last month, with EBS and Currenex reporting record trading volumes for the month and FXall a record quarter.
India reacts to rise in FX derivatives losses
MUMBAI - Indian accounting regulators have brought forward the deadline for complaince with disclosure requirements related to foreign exchange derivatives, amid rising losses linked to complex hedges by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Yen rise triggers PRDC hedging
TOKYO - The sharp appreciation of the yen in March has left dealers jostling to hedge exposures to power-reverse dual currency notes (PRDCs) and other similar structured products.
Siena Gateway gets Fix adaptor
LONDON - Eurobase last week (April 4) launched a Fix adaptor for its e-trading connectivity product, Siena Gateway.
Caplin wins three new clients
LONDON - London-based web technology vendor Caplin Systems has gained three new clients for its multi-product web-based client connectivity platform, Caplin Trader, said an official at the company.
Icap grows in Middle East
BAHRAIN - Interdealer broker Icap is expanding its footprint in the Middle East by adding the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) as an EBS Prime customer.
Small retail FX firms face extinction
Felix Shipkevich, general counsel, and Anna Vidiaev, staff attorney, at online foreign exchange trading company Capital Market Services in New York say a proposed rise in capital requirements for retail brokers will result in an anticompetitive market
Handelsbanken shuts down New York desk
NEW YORK - Handelsbanken Capital Markets is closing down its New York FX proprietary trading operation and concentrating this activity in Stockholm, where it is based, as part of a move to reduce earnings volatility.
US trading revenues plummet in 2007
NEW YORK - US commercial banks recorded $5.5 billion in trading revenues in 2007, down $13.3 billion from the record of $18.8 billion set in 2006, according to a report published by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week (April 2).
Can the buy side deliver on prices?
This Wednesday FX Week is hosting its second annual FX Invest USA congress at the Mid-America Club in Chicago. The event follows the successful launch last year of this series of conferences, which act as a forum to discuss issues facing the industry…
Gambling on stability
The dollar's downward slide against the euro can't continue. Neil Mellor, currency strategist at The Bank of New York Mellon in London, suggests a trade to take advantage of an expected period of stability in the EUR/USD
BoA and Deutsche shake-up e-FX
NEW YORK - Bank of America (BoA) and Deutsche Bank have realigned the senior management of their electronic foreign exchange businesses, and have seen senior departures from the banks in New York and London.