News
BoA management reorg
NEW YORK -- Bank of America has cut three management positions as part of an ongoing strategy to consolidate global FX trading and sales, a senior official at the bank in New York told FX Week .
War threat to Q1 FX profits
NEW YORK – The impact of the war in Iraq on FX will become clear this week, when the US commercial banks publish trading revenues for the first three months of the year.
Singapore dollar hit by SARS woes
SINGAPORE -- Speculation mounted last week that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had intervened to protect the Sing dollar’s narrow trading range, as fears over the SARS virus escalated.
Staffing and systems key for exotics
LONDON -- Staffing and systems integration are key to the right exotics options pricing model, according to officials speaking at a derivatives seminar held in London last week.
ABN, Deutsche top forecast rankings
LONDON -- ABN Amro was the most accurate currency forecaster based on a one-month prediction made on March 7, while Deutsche Bank took top spot for 3m forecasts submitted three months ago in FX Week ’s table of forecasters (see below).
Client trading volumes rising
LONDON -- Booming hedge fund interest and an increasing number of client banks in the market are boosting global customer forex volumes, according to data from research consultancy Greenwich Associates.
CFTC charges two for fraud
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last week continued its drive against retail FX fraud, charging two firms with frauds totalling over $10 million.
More prime brokers take to web
LONDON -- Automation of the prime brokerage industry is well underway, with a host of new services set to hit the market in the coming months.
Audits attract UK funds to overlay
LONDON -- A growth in audit services to assess forex transaction costs is sparking increasing interest in currency overlay among UK pension funds.
Market uncertainty hits Cognotec
LONDON -- Irish FX trading software vendor Cognotec is cutting three positions in New York and one in Frankfurt in response to continuing uncertain market conditions, said chief executive Brian Maccaba.
Pressure mounts to keep Duisenberg at the ECB
FRANKFURT -- Political pressure is mounting on European Central Bank (ECB) president Wim Duisenberg to continue his tenure beyond his planned retirement in June.
Currenex white-labels trading platform
LONDON -- Multi-bank portal Currenex has sold a white-label version of its FX trading platform to an un-named bank, an official said last week.
CLS interest picks up in Asia
SINGAPORE -- Asian financial institutions are becoming increasingly aware of the continuous-linked-settlement (CLS) service, according to research made public by ABN Amro last week. Just 30% of respondents in the bank’s survey of its clients in the…
Japan confirms March interventions
TOKYO -- The Bank of Japan, on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, spent nearly ¥1.2 trillion in March in a bid to ease the Japanese currency’s strength against the dollar and the euro.
Dollar consolidation brings FX manager joy
STAMFORD, CT -- A temporary halt in the US dollar’s downtrend helped 60% of currency managers on the Parker FX Index maintain positive returns in February. But returns were limited -- the index was up just 0.16% for the month.
Reuters mounts EBS challenge
LONDON -- Reuters is mounting a bid to unseat the Electronic Broking Service (EBS) as the premier broker in euro/dollar, a senior Reuters official told FX Week .
Mizuho sales head leaves
LONDON -- Head of treasury sales Richard Burrows and senior treasury sales dealer Neil Callard have left Mizuho Financial in London, just a year after winning their positions at the new bank.
Hotspot FXi adds Bear
NEW JERSEY -- New Jersey-based online institutional FX trading platform Hotspot FXi has signed up Bear Stearns as a prime broker and market maker on its FX electronic communications network (ECN), the firm will announce today.
Bank One adds more traders
CHICAGO -- Bank One hired two FX traders in March, continuing a build-up in spot and options trading begun earlier this year.
Hong Kong banks ready SARS contingency plans
HONG KONG -- Banks are readying contingency plans for FX trading in Hong Kong, as a potentially fatal pneumonia virus grips the trading centre.
War nerves compound cross-border M&A slump
LONDON -- Increased risk aversion due to uncertainty over the war in Iraq took its toll on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the first quarter of this year, according to data released at the end of March.
Market looks to post-war scenarios
LONDON -- The war in Iraq continued to dominate forex trading last week, but analysts are starting to look beyond the current conflict to what might happen next.