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At our recent Euromoney Islamic Finance Summit, Debashis Dey, partner at Clifford Chance, discusses AAOFI's definition of sukuk and its legal ramifications plus the progess in developing a true sales securitization market.

At our recent Euromoney Islamic Finance Summit, Dr Mohamad Nedal Al Chaar - secretary general - AAOIFI, discusses the impact of AAOIFI's ruling on sukuk, Islamic finance reform, standardization and the role of international banks.

At Euromoney's Islamic Finance Summit, Aamir Khan - managing director - Unicorn Investment Bank discusses the size of the private equity market in Islamic fianance, the differences between conventional private equity and Islamic finance private equity, the impact of the liquidity squeeze and how private equity is perceived in the Middle East?

Peter Larsson has joined RBS in London in a senior FX salesperson for financial institution clients in the Scandinavian region. Larson, who started at RBS on February 23, reports to Enrico Casini, the bank's head of European FI FX sales. He was previously at Morgan Stanley.

Today marks the last day that voting in the authoritative Euromoney FX poll is open. Word reaches me that interest has been high, which is not surprising. All of the biggest FX desks have been telling me they have been making record profits, so the big bank bosses will be paying more attention than ever before to the results. I’m sure I’m not alone in being impatient to see the final rankings. But, just like everyone else, I’m going to have to wait.

A report appeared in the Chicago Times this week highlighting the apparent rise in the number of Ponzi schemes being uncovered. ‘As prices for everything from oil to stocks to grains have fallen, allegations about Ponzi schemes in the commodity markets are booming. Former commission enforcement director Gregory Mocek said Ponzi schemes involving foreign currency trading have been so rampant they could “eat up all of the commission’s investigation and litigation resources, and there will be nothing left to protect the integrity of legitimate markets.”

It seems like only yesterday that a handful of big banks woke up to the potential of retail FX and came wading into the sector. Most of their marketing was based around the sanctity of their name: Why deal with an under-capitalised bucket shop, they might have claimed, when you can deal with a solid, reputable counterparty like us?

It seems that the prediction made by my mucker in last week’s column that the changing remuneration structure would result in bankers merely working their hours may be coming true. “As we go back to a pure salary culture, many traders will decide they have no incentive to make more than the bare minimum for their bank – after all, none of the excess profit will find its way into traders’ pockets at the end of the year,” he said.

FXCM has released a stellar set of results for 2008, further underlining how profitable FX can be. The company says it revenue rose 78% to $313.6 million from $175.8 million in 2007, and that ebitda came in at $132 million. Around $6.8 trillion was traded in 2008 on the company’s various platforms.

NYSE Euronext has announced Hugh Freedberg is to succeed Andre Villeneuve as chairman of NYSE Liffe, the company’s global derivatives business. Garry Jones, the exchange’s executive director of business development and strategy, will replace Freedberg’s role as group executive vice-president and head of global derivatives. The changes are effective May 1, when Villeneuve will retire.

I heard this week that Jeremy Gelber had left London Diversified (LDFM). They’re a secretive lot, those hedge fund Johnnies, which always makes me suspicious. So I didn’t expect any sort of answer when I sent Gelber an email asking him if he had indeed left. “No, I have not (yet) left LDFM. Where did you hear this from?” he replied

RBC Capital Markets has hired Natasha Brook-Walters as its global head of institutional FX sales. Brook-Walters, who will be based in London, was previously at Morgan Stanley. She reports to Ed Monaghan, RBC’s co-head of FICC Europe.