News
Asian forex still untapped
SINAGPORE -- Five years on from the Asian financial crisis, FX trading opportunities in the region remain largely untapped, market participants told FX Week .
Rand reverses 2001 downtrend
JOHANNESBURG -- Interest rate yields, gold prices and a budget announcement powered the South African rand to a 20-month high against the dollar last week.
GCI adds online clients and volumes
BELIZE -- Online broker GCI Financial has added institutional FX customers to its mainly retail client base, a senior official at the firm in Belize told FX Week .
Local presence vital for LatAm FX success
BUENOS AIRES -- Banks in Europe may be centralising FX trading activity in one regional centre, but the opposite is required in Latin America, senior bankers told FX Week .
Job moves afoot in London as bonus season wraps up
LONDON -- As the bonus season draws to a close, the number of high-profile London FX professionals set to move jobs is about to soar, market participants and recruiters told FX Week .
SuperDerivatives adds Koram Bank
LONDON -- FX options pricing vendor SuperDerivatives has added Koram Bank of South Korea to its growing client list, the firm said last week.
Lehman bags Merrill’s Bernal to lead money manager sales
NEW YORK -- FX heavyweight Mike Bernal joined Lehman Brothers in New York last Monday (February 26). He joins in a new position managing all marketing efforts for money managers in foreign exchange, said a spokesperson at Lehman Brothers in New York.
Citi triumphs in Asian CLS
TAIWAN -- Citigroup appears to be winning the battle for third-party CLS business in Asia. The bank last week signed up its fourth client in Taiwan alone -- Bank of Kaohsiung, which now joins Union Bank of Taiwan and two other un-named Taiwanese banks as…
Bank One takes MarginMan
CHICAGO -- Foreign exchange traders at Chicago-based Bank One are now using MarginMan, a collateral-management software system from California-based Integral Development.
Tech briefs
State Treasury of Finland joins growing Trema client list
Trading places
Refco launches alternative investment division
Economy buoys UK banks’ forex vols
LONDON -- UK banks have managed to avoid the widespread year-on-year downturns in foreign exchange revenues suffered by their US counterparts, financial reports revealed last week.
CME launches CME$Index futures contract
CHICAGO -- The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) launches its new ‘CME$Index’ futures contract, an index of seven foreign currencies against the US dollar, today (March 3). The contract is intended to provide end-users with a broad tool to gain or reduce…
Refco launches web prime brokerage using Currenex
CHICAGO -- Refco F/X Associates, part of Refco Group, has taken its FX prime brokerage service online in a bid to improve efficiency, a senior official at the broker in Chicago told FX Week .
Trading places
Reuters hires Moneyline founder for fixed income
CLS settles a trillion a day
NEW YORK -- Continuous Linked Settlement, the new settlement service for foreign exchange, settled a record $1 trillion in FX payments on February 18.
Rob Standing quits JPMC with spun-off hedge fund
LONDON -- Rob Standing, head of European rates at JP Morgan Chase in London, will leave the bank to head the London Diversification Fund (LDF) in the coming months, a spokesperson for the bank told FX Week .
IG takeover sparks FX job worries
LONDON -- FX jobs could be under threat if City Index, the London-based spread-betting shop owned by Intercapital private group, goes ahead with a takeover of rival IG Index.
Traders reap rewards in LatAm markets
MEXICO CITY -- As clients and banks scour the globe for volatile FX markets, Latin America has become a key battleground for new FX business, senior market participants told FX Week .
Hotspot FXi opens in Europe
NEW JERSEY -- Online institutional FX trading platform Hotspot FXi has hired Rakesh Shah to head its new European office in London.
FX offers hope for Reuters
LONDON -- Dealing 3000, Reuters’ FX trading system, lost some ground last year, but FX provided some joy for the information and technology giant in its annual results published last week.
ABN Amro overhauls FM division
AMSTERDAM -- ABN Amro last week completed a thorough overhaul of its financial markets division, in a reorgnisation that will affect foreign exchange in two key ways.
Market static as uncertainty rules
LONDON -- There was little action in G3 FX last week, as the geopolitical stand-off over Iraq extended to the markets.
BoA props up trading business
BoA props up trading business