News
CME adds four to boost Globex
CHICAGO – The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) last week announced four appointments as part of a drive to boost electronic trading growth on its Globex platform.
EBS Live doubles data delivery frequency
LONDON – Electronic broker EBS last week announced an enhancement to its recently launched direct data feed EBS Live to double the frequency of its FX spot rate ‘time slices’ to 500 milliseconds.
StanChart names new Asia line-up
HONG KONG – Standard Chartered has promoted two forex managers to replace global markets trading head John Tan, who recently left the bank in Hong Kong.
Spitzer to drop RBC inquiry
NEW YORK – Eliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general, will not pursue a formal inquiry into Royal Bank of Canada for overpayments its clients made on FX trades, FX Week has learned.
DrKW expands French sales
PARIS – Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has added to its capital markets team in Paris. The expansion will help the bank deal with growing business it has seen since it started integrating its fixed-income and equity dealing desks two years ago,…
JPMC’s merger plans revealed
NEW YORK – JP Morgan Chase’s plans to absorb Bank One’s global foreign exchange trading business became clear last week, following the completion of the US banks’ merger on July 1.
Euro doubts remain despite EC growth forecasts
LONDON – Economic growth in the eurozone is set to exceed the European Commission’s forecast of 1.7% in 2004, it said in its quarterly report last week – but analysts remain sceptical that this will be enough to sustain the euro’s current rally.
Front adds new matrix
NEW YORK – Front Capital Systems will release the latest version of Front Arena Treasury Trader at the FX Week USA Congress tomorrow (July 13). Version 2004.1 introduces a spread matrix to monitor customer margins.
JPMC and ABN add CLS clients
NEW YORK – JP Morgan and ABN Amro have added new clients to their continuous-linked settlement (CLS) services. JP Morgan Treasury Services implemented Prudential Financial’s (PFI) global derivatives business in four weeks – its fastest implementation yet…
ABN hires Italian chief
LONDON – ABN Amro has hired Alberto Matta for a newly created role as head of financial markets and public sector (Fips) distribution for Italy.
Forex TV moves to Nymex trading floor
NEW YORK – Forex Television is this month moving to a trading floor in the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) building. The trading floor will be operated by sister firm e-FX Trader, which was set up in March to offer trading services in conjunction…
Baltics, Slovenia set for early euro adoption
LONDON – Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia are likely to be the first of the new European Union member states to adopt the euro, Fitch Ratings said last week.
LavaFX on track despite Citi deal
NEW YORK – Citigroup’s planned acquisition of securities trading vendor Lava Trading will not alter the New-York based firm’s plans to launch LavaFX, a multi-bank FX trading platform, next month, a Lava spokesperson told FX Week.
Rupiah vol ahead as elections continue
JAKARTA – The Indonesian rupiah continued to rise last week, hitting 9,000 against the dollar following a smooth first round to the country’s first-ever presidential elections. But market participants are wary of the medium-term outlook as the country…
International Assets buys Global Currencies
FLORIDA – International Assets Holding Corporation (Intl), an emerging market-focused financial services company, last week (July 7) purchased the FX operations of UK-based Global Currencies for $2.4 million. The payment comprised $1 million cash plus…
Brokertalk to bring chat back to the market
LONDON – A group of former investment bankers, asset managers and fixed-income traders has launched a news service to provide traders with a view of market activity they feel has been lost in the age of e-trading. Brokertalk launched last week (July 5)…
Rivals gear up for FX clearing
LONDON – The stage is set for a central counterparty clearing (CCP) system for FX as two potential providers moved their plans forward last week.
FNX licenses derivatives analytics
Philadelphia – Treasury management system vendor FNX is adding to the derivatives analytics on its Sierra platform with models from US banking software vendor Suite.
Funds struggle as dollar swings
STAMFORD, CT – Currency funds struggled to make positive returns in May, according to the Parker FX Index, which was down 1.65% for the month. Only 13 of the 52 reporting funds achieved profits in a month when the dollar strengthened to 1.1822 against…
Korean CLS utility opts for PAYplus
The utility through which Korean banks will use the continuous linked settlement (CLS) service for FX, has selected vendor Fundtech’s PAYplus as its core application, it said last week.
AIG restaffs FX post-merger
LONDON – Banque AIG, a subsidiary of AIG Financial Products, has hired six sales and trading specialists in a bid to upgrade the FX component of its cross-product service.