Regulation
Indian market opens up
MUMBAI -- Reform of India’s FX rules could create the next large emerging market, signalling a lucrative new area for banks to exploit.
Plimsoll steps into currency overlay
NEW JERSEY -- Summit, New Jersey-based fund manager Plimsoll Capital is moving into currency overlay, and expects to secure its first clients this quarter, a senior official told FX Week .
US banks revisit specialist sales
NEW YORK -- JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America are among the banks turning back to specialist FX advisory teams, in a move away from cross-product generalist sales.
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.
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.
Further uncertainty grips market
LONDON -- FX markets breathed a sigh of relief last week as the war in Iraq got under way, but as one source of uncertainty was removed, another popped up.
BarCap lures top dealers
LONDON -- Barclays Capital is in the midst of an aggressive recruitment campaign in London and New York, targeting staff at the world’s top investment banks.
Bush war stance sinks dollar
NEW YORK -- The US dollar slid to a four-year low against the euro last week, as US president George Bush’s stance over Iraq continued to harden.
Vol surge expected from east Europe
WARSAW -- Political events in countries slated to join the European Union and the euro are set to trigger a wave of FX volatility in emerging European countries, 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.
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.
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.
RBA unwinds Australian dollar holding
SYDNEY -- The Reserve Bank of Australia took profits on its Australian dollar holdings earlier this year, selling nearly A$500 million, according to the bank’s February bulletin.
Dollar downtrend halts decline in US hedging
NEW YORK -- The US dollar’s decline in recent months has sparked an increase in hedging activity among US companies, six months after senior FX officials reported that many firms were unhedged.
BIS expands derivatives data
BASEL -- The Bank for International Settlements said last week that it is expanding its statistics on banks’ country risk exposures to include data on derivatives exposures to individual countries.
Rusnak lessons still unheeded
NEW YORK -- Global banks are yet to implement key recommendations to limit rogue trading losses, one year on from John Rusnak’s record $700 million forex fraud.
GFI closes FX options mark-to-market gap
NEW YORK -- Solving the problem of marking FX options to market came a step closer to being resolved last week, with the launch of a new ‘revaluation fixing’ service from New York-based interdealer broker GFI.
Blix report boosts dollar
NEW YORK -- The US dollar rallied slightly in the wake of United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix’s report on Iraq late last Friday.
Combined sales teams take off
LONDON -- The FX sales dealer may soon be a thing of the past if a new trend for cross-product sales teams catches on.
BoA HK focuses on debt capital raising
HONG KONG -- Bank of America has hired Abidin Siregar in a newly created role as head of global markets, Hong Kong. He will cover sales, trading and research, and build the bank’s debt capital raising business across the region.
Analysts mull Iraq FX fallout
LONDON -- With geopolitical tensions continuing to dominate FX markets, analysts are now looking beyond any potential conflict at the possible fallout and its impact on currencies.
Heavyweights tackle rising un-named counterparty risk
NEW YORK -- Top FX banks are joining forces with central banks and industry groups to eliminate un-named counterparty risk.