News
UBS removes US mortgages from VaR
ZURICH - UBS has announced a change to its risk measurement techniques: exposures to US mortgages are no longer included in its daily calculations of value at risk (VaR).
BOC acts to curb RMB speculative buying
HONG KONG - Bank of China, the only clearing bank for Chinese renminbi foreign exchange transactions in Hong Kong, raised the cost of converting the Hong Kong dollar to renminbi last Wednesday (May 7).
FXCM posts $62m
FXCM posted $62.12 million in revenues and a net quarterly EBITA of $25 million in first-quarter results ending March 31.
Quick rolls out new Icap data
TOKYO - Japanese financial information vendor Quick, the country's dominant domestic provider, is adding a suite of new currency datasets and services from interdealer broker Icap to its products.
Euro threat remains, says UK's House of Lords
LONDON - The euro has managed to avoid an initial quick collapse predicted by many, but the threat has not yet passed, according to the UK's House of Lords.
CNY: No clear reason for NDF retreat
SINGAPORE - Mispricing seen in the Chinese renminbi non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market in recent weeks will be short-lived, say analysts.
FX has record Q1 at writedown-hit UBS
ZURICH & LONDON - High volatility drove a record quarter for UBS's foreign exchange business, but could only partially offset the effects of $19 billion-worth of US mortgage- and structured credit-related losses in its fixed-income, currencies and…
SEC cracks down on Ponzi scheme
WASHINGTON, DC - The Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on an alleged $27.9 million Ponzi scheme involving foreign exchange trading firm Gold-Quest International (GQI).
IMF's policy advisory chair resigns
ROME - International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) chairman Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa has tendered his resignation from chairmanship of the International Monetary Fund's policy advisory committee.
CBA reshuffles forex
SYDNEY - The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has made two key hires for its foreign exchange trading team in Sydney and has restructured its global sales group.
Czech forex volumes double in six months
PRAGUE - The credit crisis led to a sharp rise in Czech koruna forwards and foreign exchange swaps volumes in April, according to statistics released last week.
Saxo in $18.8m acquisition
SYDNEY - Saxo Bank is expanding its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region, with plans to acquire a 35% stake in Sydney-based broker Tricom.
UniCredit hires Craven to drive Asia expansion
HONG KONG - UniCredit has hired Joe Craven to head the bank's fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) sales and trading business in Asia.
Credit Suisse names global head of forex
NEW YORK - Credit Suisse has made Steve Yanez head of its global foreign exchange business in New York as of May 1.
FX a highlight in tough Q1
FRANKFURT & STOCKHOLM - Foreign exchange revenues continue to provide a bright spot in European banks' gloomy quarterly results, as the credit-related losses roll on for market players.
Bawag Bank licenses GFI's Fenics FX
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's Bawag Bank has taken a three-year licence for pricing and risk management software Fenics FX, to price foreign exchange.
Merrill steals two traders from BoA
NEW YORK & LONDON - Merrill Lynch has hired David Catalan and Lee Cantor, two former currency options traders at Bank of America (BoA) in New York.
GCC currency pairs live on ACM
GENEVA - Six new Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) currency pairs are now available to traders on Geneva-based online currency trading platform AC Markets (ACM).
Eurobase enhances limit order support
LONDON - London-based trading technology vendor Eurobase has expanded the foreign exchange limit order processing in its Siena e-Trading system to include more order capture and processing support for non-deliverable forwards, FX spot, outright and swaps.
Exchange-traded forex volumes up 41% in April
CHICAGO & NEW YORK - CME Group foreign exchange volume averaged 613,000 contracts a day for the month of April, up 41% on the same month last year. Average daily volumes for FX contracts in the three-month period ending April were also the highest…
Short volatility strategies best earners in April
LONDON - A short volatility strategy would have gained currency managers the highest returns in April, according to strategy research carried out by ABN Amro.
Canada's Toronto Dominion goes live with Digitec D-3 pricing engine
HAMBURG & TORONTO - Toronto Dominion (TD) is set to use Digitec's D-3 pricing engine to calculate foreign exchange forward prices, the bank said.
New governor overhauls South Korea's FSS
SEOUL - Kim Jong Chang, the new governor of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), has initiated a shake-up of the financial regulator aimed at cutting bureaucracy, streamlining operations and attracting talent from the private sector.