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Respondents to Euromoney’s Insurance survey are the direct buyers of insurance at major companies worldwide. The majority are risk managers. Other respondents included chief financial officers, insurance managers, heads of treasury and vice-presidents.

Results of the 31st annual Euromoney FX poll will be made public 6 May 2009. This is the largest and most representative poll to date. We received 12,150 valid votes this year, up from 9,810 in 2008, an increase of 23.9%.

Insurers take cover to avoid capital crunch

Zurich reported net income of $3 billion for 2008. More impressive was its return of 1% on its investments. Helen Avery spoke to Martin Senn, CIO.

Buzz in the market says CLS is about to unveil a venture with a technology partner and a group of banks to allow the aggregation of trades. Well-placed sources insist this is not a move towards netting but something designed to ease the pressure on the back offices of CLS’ clients – many of which are also its shareholders. All the normal suspects are said to be involved, but none of them will comment because a final agreement has yet to be reached. Should the deal be concluded, I’m told it is likely to have far reaching implications. Expect more on this in due course.

The imposition of a more stringent global regulatory regime for all financial markets is the talk of the town at the moment. So it is somewhat surprising to discover that the implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive in the EU in November 2007 resulted in a huge decrease in the number of FX brokers registered with the FSA.

For those outside the UK who may not have been aware of it, the unwashed, known locally as crusties, decided to welcome the great and the good from the G20 by holding various demonstrations. The first kicked off in the City outside the Bank of England on Wednesday.

It was inevitable that this week would lead to some cheap opportunities for headlines. After all, with the G20 being held, plus the ECB’s decision on rates as well as the will it/won’t it debate around quantitative easing, was always going to throw up some interesting comments. I really wanted to use Junckers dive bombs the euro after some top quality gobbledegook from Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday about the danger of some of the eurozone states imploding. “We would be ready to give an answer to a crisis within hours. But we will not have to give an answer because the question, as it is being asked at the moment, will not be asked,” he grandiloquently stated.

It’s long been claimed by some that companies such as Icap and Tullett Prebon are more attractive from an investment perspective than the old-fashioned exchanges, mainly on the basis that they offer a far more diversified product line. Several exchanges have woken up to this over the past few years and have effectively sought to replicate the business model utilised by the brokers, who have always claimed that they benefit whether markets are rising or falling.

At the time of writing, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the only major trading venue to have reported its volumes for March. The exchange says its average daily volume rose 6.6% to 545,709 contracts. In notional terms, the CME saw an average of $66.4 billion of trade each day. The figures are likely to be indicative of other venues and though the rise is encouraging, the CME saw an annualised decline in turnover of 28%.

Danish online trading specialist Saxo Bank has announced its operating income rose 61% and its net profit increased by 23% in 2008. Operating income came in at DKK 2.5 billion (€338 million), with net profits at DKK 339 million. The results were produced in what the bank says was a year of significant change that saw its management taking the decision to embark on consolidation and streamlining.

Marcus Browning, a partner at LDFM, was savagely attacked and bitten by a wild animal this week. The incident happened near Old Street, just north of the City, when he was on his way home from a night out. Browning says that without any provocation on his part, he was bitten on the ankle by an urban fox. Such incidents, I’m afraid, are always likely in that particular neck of the woods if you rummage around in the gutter picking up all the pieces from your kebab.