Foreign exchange
Market suspects yen intervention
TOKYO -- Speculation was rife in FX markets last week that the Bank of Japan was intervening to attempt to keep the yen above 120 per dollar ahead of the Japanese fiscal year-end today (March 31).
White-label trend takes root
LONDON -- The liquidity outsourcing industry is reaching a crucial stage in its development, according to bankers, vendors and analysts polled by FX Week .
White-label trend takes root
LONDON -- The liquidity outsourcing industry is reaching a crucial stage in its development, according to bankers, vendors and analysts polled by FX Week .
Strategists’ role in prop trading under focus in choppy markets
NEW YORK -- Choppy markets are highlighting the difficulties of accurately forecasting currency moves -- and no more so than for those banks with capital behind their strategists’ recommendations.
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.
Dollar bloc upsurge boosts Australian forex turnover
SYDNEY -- Increasing interest in Australian dollar trading is boosting Australian banks’ forex turnover, senior market participants told FX Week .
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.
Goldman down, Bear Stearns up in Q1 forex
NEW YORK -- Goldman Sachs last week reported reduced forex revenues within its fixed-income, currency and commodities (FICC) division for Q1, although other US investment banks fared better.
ACI postpones Beirut meeting
BEIRUT -- The biennial meeting of the forex industry organised by ACI-The Financial Markets Association, has been postponed until September 10--14, the ACI announced last week.
ECB highlights dangers of over-concentrated market
FRANKFURT -- Market consolidation and a reliance on electronic trading could lead to an over-concentration of risk and liquidity among too few market participants, the European Central Bank has warned.
Forex downturn hits US wages
NEW YORK -- Market stagnation has resulted in near flat foreign exchange wages for dealers in the US, with senior managers receiving increases less than the yearly inflation rate, according to a report made public earlier this month.
Tullett launches global Swapmarker
LONDON -- Tullett Financial Information, a subsidiary of brokerage firm Tullett, last week released a global version of Swapmarker, its capital markets data product.
Verdict due on Beirut meeting
BEIRUT -- The fate of the global forex industry’s biennial meeting, due to take place in Beirut in just two months, will be decided on March 17.
Zar Amrolia quits Goldman
LONDON -- Former global head of FX sales at Goldman Sachs, Zar Amrolia, has left the bank after a series of job changes divested him of some of his forex responsibilities.
RBS FiXes benchmarks with EBS
LONDON -- The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has gone live with a new benchmark engine for spot and forwards FX rates, called RBSFiX.
Emerging markets boost HSBC’s profits
LONDON -- A strong performance in emerging markets FX helped HSBC to its biggest-ever yearly forex profits, an official said last week. The bank made $1.17 billion from forex in 2002, up by 4% from $1.12 billion the year before. Based on banks’ financial…
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.