News
India to open rupee/dollar futures to FIIs
MUMBAI - The Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) are expected to allow foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to participate in the currency futures market soon, market participants speculate.
China in shock interest rate cut
BEIJING, MUMBAI & BANGKOK - The People's Bank of China shocked markets with an aggressive 108 basis point cut to interest rates last Wednesday (November 26), in its latest move to curb the rapid decline in growth.
Hedge funds outshine banks as API price-makers
LONDON - Banks are mostly price-takers when trading on spot broking system EBS through an application programming interface (API), according to analysis by interdealer broker Icap.
Ellis to leave CIBC, Monahan quits Icap
TORONTO & HONG KONG - Craig Ellis, managing director in foreign exchange and money markets, has announced his departure from CIBC World Markets effective December 5. Meanwhile, Mark Monahan, chief executive of Icap’s electronic business in the Asia…
Morgan Stanley's Mettler gets new deputy head
LONDON - Morgan Stanley has promoted Marcin Wiszniewski to a newly created role as deputy head of global foreign exchange and emerging markets (EM), effective December 1.
Crisis benefits BoA, JPM
STAMFORD, CT - Bank of America (BoA) and JP Morgan have tightened their grip on the US corporate banking market in the fallout from the financial crisis in September, according to research by Greenwich Associates.
Shah, Bear depart CBA in London
LONDON - The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has seen a reduction in its headcount in London.
One up, three down at Citi
NEW YORK & LONDON - Citi's global head of electronic execution has been made redundant and cuts have been made to the foreign exchange sales team in London, as part of the bank's drive to reduce headcount globally.
MarketFactory Whisperer closer to launch
LONDON & NEW YORK - MarketFactory's Whisperer product is being beta-tested by a group of clients made up of banks and funds, James Sinclair, chief executive of the financial technology firm in New York, has told FX Week. He expects the first client to go…
DealHub client consolidates trades
LONDON - Options Computer Limited (OCL) has deployed its DealHub internal trade netting tool with an existing client, enabling the bank to reduce more than 100,000 component trades to 1,000 aggregate trades, according to the vendor.
New SocGen platform targets active traders
LONDON - Société Générale is set to launch a new foreign exchange trading platform in January, in a move to increase its presence among institutional clients.
SocGen bolsters London FX team
LONDON - Société Générale has boosted its foreign exchange outfit in London with the addition of two former Lehman Brothers staff.
Traders shift focus to recession
LONDON - Traders are reporting a slowdown in foreign exchange activity and a focus shift towards global recession fears as the market approaches year-end.
Bloomberg Tradebook back on track
NEW YORK - Bloomberg Tradebook is this week re-launching its foreign exchange electronic communications network after suffering up to eight weeks of outage as it sought to replace AIG as its central clearer.
More crisis casualties
LONDON - Morgan Stanley, Citi and Deutsche Bank have all announced thousands of global job cuts in response to the market dislocation, with foreign exchange teams unavoidably in the firing line.
Banks plan to up tech spend
LONDON - Fifty percent of banks plan to spend more on technology next year than this year, according to a poll of bank delegates at the FX Week Europe Congress in London last week.
Industry pushes to expand CLS coverage
LONDON - Panellists at the FX Week Europe Congress held in London last week applauded CLS for its role in alleviating settlement risk, but pushed for expansion to cover more counterparties, currencies and products.
Algos 'point inwards' amid low liquidity
LONDON - There will be greater internalisation of flow as banks search for liquidity, according to a panel discussing algorithmic trading developments at last week's FX Week Europe Congress.
Unicredit hires two new FX heads
LONDON - Unicredit has bolstered its foreign exchange team in London with the hires of Peter Jerrom and Will Vogel, both from Lehman Brothers.
Retail FX benefits as traders go DIY
LONDON - The retail foreign exchange revolution could benefit from reduced headcounts within the financial services industry, according to Mark Davison, vice-president of pro-sales at Forex Capital Markets (FXCM).
Fisher: FX will slow down to assess risk
LONDON - Activity in the foreign exchange market will "pull back" over the next couple of years, while risk management will become a key focus for the industry, according to Paul Fisher, London-based head of the FX and reserves management division at the…