Search results for

A three-way merger of Costa Rica’s largest state-owned banks to help deal with desperate funding shortages and reduce their operating expenses is not without its drawbacks. Chloe Hayward reports from San José.

For the hundreds of hedge funds caught up in the collapse of Lehman Brothers International’s prime brokerage, it might take years to claw back securities entrusted as collateral. Some face destruction through rehypothecation. It’s the first case of its type, and now the entire structure of prime brokerage is under scrutiny.

The $473 million Kalamazoo (Mich.) Retirement System is considering shifting its entire real estate portfolio into private real estate investment trusts and is in the process of assessing global managers to present to the board at the next meeting Nov. 19. Kalamzoo’s real estate portfolio has an aggregate $23 million between the city and county plans. It is split 50/50 between public and private REITs. Private REITs have lower volatility and less correlation to the equity market than public REITs, said Board Chair Bob Salisbury.

Includes Bonds, Equities, Loans, M&A, MTN, Project Finance

The European Commission could seriously damage structured finance, say speakers.

Or, put another way, I have come to bury FXMarketSpace (FXMS), not to praise it.

Was leverage responsible for driving some FX rates to extreme levels? And is its withdrawal causing those same rates to move back to their longer-term equilibrium rates in some cases and below them in others?

Call me old fashioned, but I still believe in the old Forex Associations motto of ‘My word is my bond’. But it seems that a few of the talented crop of dealers and sales people who work in the market no longer feel the same.

I was amazed to see reports in the national press about KiKo (knock in-knock out) options, which are being blamed for some hefty losses by Korean corporates.

CME has announced it is adding Turkish lira futures, denominated in both USD and EUR, to its suite of products as it attempts to continue gobbling up the exchange-traded FX market. The new contracts are due to go live in January, 2009.

Guy Plummer, who recently joined Calyon London from Bear Stearns, is rumoured to have left to join a hedge fund.

Credit Suisse has confirmed the hire of Martin Amann in hedge fund sales and Xiasong Wu in New York. Both are exiles from Lehman Brothers.