Infrastructure
Króna in chaos during Iceland's meltdown
REYKJAVIK - Confusion reigned in Icelandic króna trading last week, as the country's central bank, Sedlabanki, abandoned its peg to a basket of nine currencies a day after it was effected.
Decline continues on Parker FX
STAMFORD, CT - The Parker FX Index made a loss of 0.73% in August, falling further from a negative 0.11% the previous month, as the sharp appreciation in the US dollar caught out 60% of managers.
FXMPG tackles FX practices
BRUSSELS - The Foreign Exchange Market Practice Group (FXMPG) plans to hold its first meeting in January, to begin establishing global market practice for foreign exchange activities.
RealStream Margin revamped
LONDON - Cognotec is set to roll out the latest version of its web-based margin trading system, RealStream Margin 3.0, in response to market demand for efficiency and enhanced risk management products.
FXMarketSpace abandoned
CHICAGO & LONDON - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Thomson Reuters have confirmed their joint venture platform FXMarketSpace will be shut down, ending speculation over the system's future.
Cutting costs
Pat Lefler, director, product marketing, at Wall Street Systems in New York, looks at ways smaller banks could reduce their trade-processing costs and remain competitive
OMS vendors tackle multi-asset risk
LONDON - Order management system (OMS) vendors are enhancing their multi-asset pre-trade analytics to address the growing trend among financial institutions of broadening the asset classes and geographies in which they trade.
Iosco turns spotlight on commodities
WASHINGTON, DC - The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) are to lead an international regulators' group overseeing the commodity markets.
Gold rush on Lehman's European FX team
LONDON - Dealers are willing to pay top dollar for Lehman Brothers' foreign exchange team in Europe, following the failure of administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to agree a sale of the defunct bank's European fixed-income unit last week.
US meltdown spurs central clearer debate
LONDON & NEW YORK - The fallout from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and implosion of insurance company AIG has spurred renewed debate over the central-counterparty model for spot foreign exchange, as concerns over counterparty risk take centre stage.
Saxo Bank cuts 400 jobs
COPENHAGEN & LONDON - Saxo Bank is today (September 29) shedding up to 400 jobs globally as part of plans to streamline its business, officials tell FX Week .
Citi gains BoC Hong Kong for CLS
HONG KONG - Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BoC HK) has signed an agreement to use Citi's Global Transaction Services as its continuous-linked settlement (CLS) nostro agent for US dollar.
JPM offers new FX platform
LONDON - JP Morgan last week launched MorganDirect, a new proprietary foreign exchange trading platform that will eventually replace the incumbent JPex system.
OCBC cashes in on Asian DCR growth
SINGAPORE - OCBC Bank expects to see 20% growth in its dual currency returns (DCR) business in Singapore next year, following implementation of a structured deposit pricing and processing system from FinIQ, said bank officials.
Swedbank signs on to Aleri's LMS
STOCKHOLM - Swedbank has become the latest dealer to introduce a liquidity management system (LMS), selecting Aleri's LMS technology to manage liquidity risk across all asset classes.
Lehman's fall leads to liquidity drought
GLOBAL - Heightened concerns over counterparty credit risk caused a dry-up of liquidity in the currency markets last week, as dealers feared a domino effect from the collapse of Lehman Brothers on Sunday, September 14.
JP Morgan replaces AIG on Currenex
NEW YORK - JP Morgan replaced AIG as the central clearer on Currenex's anonymous trading platform on September 17.
CLS sets record post-Lehman
LONDON & NEW YORK - The collapse of Lehman Brothers highlighted the importance of settlement system CLS in shielding the foreign exchange industry from Herstatt risk.
Lehman derivatives trading 'light'
NEW YORK - The International Swaps and Derivatives Association's emergency trading session, held on Sunday, September 14 to reduce banks' exposure to Lehman Brothers, received a low response, said a New-York based official that participated in the co…
Sibos: market must clear processing bottleneck
VIENNA - During a panel discussion at last week's Sibos conference, CLS Bank, Credit Suisse, Traiana and Bloomberg agreed collective action was needed to avoid a serious processing bottleneck in the foreign exchange market.