News
BMO opens branch in Shanghai
SHANGHAI - BMO Financial Group opened its Shanghai branch on May 13th. Initially a representative office, the branch has been upgraded in a bid to increase the bank's coverage of the Yangtze River Delta region.
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 .
Ex-UBS FX bank sales team set to start at Citi
ZURICH, LONDON & SINGAPORE - The former UBS bank foreign exchange sales team is set to begin at US rival Citi from July 1, Citi confirmed.
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.
Shake-up at Commerzbank
LONDON - Commerzbank has restructured its FX and rates desk, resulting in the departure of Nasir Afaf, head of FX options in London.
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.
Asia should ditch USD to cut settlement risk
HONG KONG & TOKYO - US dollar settlement risks in the Asian foreign exchange market could be reduced by using an Asian vehicle currency for intra-regional trade and direct settlement among Asian currencies, according to economists.
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.
ABN upbeat on US dollar
FRANKFURT - ABN Amro has launched two capital-protected notes in Germany designed to provide exposure to the appreciation of the US dollar against the euro. The notes are targeted at investors anticipating a move towards a sustainable US base interest…
Margin FX "gambling" banned in China
BEIJING - China's banking regulators have issued a ban on FX margin trading, citing poor risk management among Chinese commercial banks licensed to provide the service. Existing margin trading accounts need to be settled as quickly as possible, added the…
Libor gets an overhaul
LONDON - The British Bankers' Association (BBA) has announced changes to the governance of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).
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.
Hotspot gets summer upgrades
JERSEY CITY, NJ - Knight Capital Group has embarked on a summer-long software revamp of Hotspot, its electronic FX platform. The broker-dealer has already stripped two-thirds of round-trip time from the software.