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The CME has appointed Michael O’Connell as its managing director, clearing business development. He will report to Kim Taylor, managing director and president, CME Clearing. O’Connell joins the CME from Northern Trust Corporation.

A recent report from Celent Communications – Securities and investments IT spending. Update: navigating the new volatility – highlighted the fact that spending on information technology projects will inevitably shrink. “It now appears that the sub-prime crisis was only the tip of the iceberg in the dangerous, cold financial waters of 2008... Consequently, as financial companies recede, reorganize and seek safe harbours, IT spending and priorities take focus as firms consider their competitive position, capital base and growth prospects,” the firm writes.

A minor – no, sorry, make that a major – gripe I have is to receive a press release that tells me to contact the sender if I want further information, only to be told, when I do so, that nobody is available to answer my questions. I received such a release this week on behalf of Bloomberg, which stimulated my taste buds, but left a sour after-taste for precisely that reason.

The anecdotal evidence suggests that liquidity is dropping off and that as it does, the market’s major liquidity providers have been tightening up their spreads. An interesting note sent out by RBS’s quant solutions team at the end of October suggested that the banks have, so far, largely been getting things right in matching the spreads they have been quoting to the market conditions.

I received a welcome diversion this week in the shape of an email sent by a consultant in Kansas.

Another week, another wave of redundancies

Market participants have been saying for some time that 2008 will to be a bad year to have a good year. However, until the past couple of weeks, the general view has been that bonuses, aka ‘bonios’, will hold up. ‘If the banks want to keep hold of the producers, they will have to pay them,’ seems to be the consensus.

How long will the recession last? One answer is as long as it takes for households to achieve a 3%-5% savings rate from the negative pre-crisis rate. One year? Four?

Lee Kranefuss, ceo of Barclays Global Investors iShares, said he expects a shakeout in the exchange-traded fund industry in 2009, as well as continued growth of ETF assets while mutual funds decline. (IndexUniverse)

The US Department of Treasury has been told that the insurance industry can play a big role in easing the global financial crisis.

“Until there is clarity on this programme, issuers will remain wary of issuing and investors will remain wary of investing. ”