Trading
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.
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…
Bloc boosting
Rising commodity prices and high yields have boosted the ‘dollar bloc’ currencies, and the trend is set to continue, says David Mozina, head of G10 FX strategy at Banc of America Securities in New York
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.
Trichet still best bet for ECB job
Jean-Claude Trichet’s trial is not an insurmountable obstacle to his accession to ECB presidency. But while the outcome is uncertain, French officials must come up with a back-up candidate, says Stephen Sandelius, Paris correspondent for Market News…
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.
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.
China forex volumes rise
BEIJING -- Forex turnover in the Chinese market rocketed by 73% in January, according to data made public last week.
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.
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.
A focus on partnerships
Vision, transparency and communication are key to FX outsourcing partnerships, says Kiril Alexiev, assistant vice-president in Global FX Strategic Alliances at ABN Amro in Chicago
Digital strike combats Korean hedging worries
A local importer in South Korea with upcoming dollar payables would be wise to consider a digital strike forward as tensions increase in North Korea, says Charlie Brown, head of structuring and solutions for global FX options at Standard Chartered Bank…
ABN reports FX uptick
LONDON -- Dutch bank ABN Amro reported a 40% rise in FX dealing income for 2002 in a report released last week.
Goldman to add FX to research portal
LONDON -- Investment bank Goldman Sachs will add FX to a new centralised data and research platform in March.
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.
Private client demand soars for FX firm
LONDON -- More private clients in the UK buying property in Europe has boosted demand for a new specialist FX firm, a senior official at Seagray Matthews Foreign Exchange (SGM-FX) told FX Week .
Give every DOG its day
The threat of war in Iraq, and the political and financial fallout, has brought dollar weakness. But this narrow focus ignores a more telling relationship across the asset classes -- that of dollar, oil and gold, says Gerald Ashley
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.
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.
Barclays merges FX/FI prime brokerage
LONDON -- Barclays Capital will complete the merger of its FX and fixed-income prime brokerage businesses by the end of March, a senior official told FX Week .