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Growth potential, better corporate governance, a shot of expert knowledge and a troubled stock market are all reasons why family-owned firms might sell stakes to interested outsiders. Alex Warren reports.

Before the September crisis, many banks were looking to sell non-core assets to raise capital. Now, safety in size means mergers are the order of the day. But when the market settles, will investors demand that banks concentrate on what they are good at to maximise returns?

Spread-better TradIndex is believed to have hired three new members of staff from rival IG Index. Making the move are Rob Woolfe, who is apparently joining as head of FX, Richard Wiltshire, chief dealer FX and Chris Hawkes, who is going as an FX dealer. It is not clear when they will start.

The dollar’s resurgence got me thinking, which as my editor will tell you, can be dangerous.

For the moment, Locog’s faith in the medium-to long-term equilibrium rate for cable being around 1.60 is starting to look justified.

More currency pairs

I was amazed recently to learn that the accidental exercising of deep out-of-the-money options on the regulated exchanges is a significant problem and, apparently, keeps many operational risk managers awake with nightmares.

My children frequently delight in calling me a “der-brain”. If they are right, it could explain why I was so confused this week by a press release sent out by Cognotec. This seems to have taken the “more-is-more” approach to PR and it trumpeted a deal between Cognotec and an Israeli company called Finocorp. The two have partnered and Cognotec is supplying its RealStream Margin product to power Finocorp’s Real Stream Trading platform.

The CME’s FX volumes held up remarkably well in August, especially given the fact that generally the markets were nowhere near as volatile as a year earlier.

Chicago-based futures commission merchant Rosenthal Collins (RCG) has deployed GL Trade’s Aspen for FX to support its back-office operations. The application, which might be better known to pure FX players as an FNX product, allows RCG to monitor and manage positions taken out on five ECNs and one rate provider.

UBS has hired Carsten Kengeter as its new global head, fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) within its investment bank. Kengeter, who will join UBS from Goldman Sachs, relocating from Hong Kong to London, is the replacement for André Esteves, who quit the bank earlier in the year. He will report to Jerker Johansson, the chairman and chief executive of UBS Investment Bank, who had also been acting as an interim head of FICC. Kengeter will also join the investment bank's executive committee and the UBS Group's managing board.

CLS has hired Roger Rutherford, who many years had the pleasure of taking my line when he was a dollar/Deutschmark broker, from Icap’s EBS unit. Rutherford, who will be CLS’s head of product management, will report to Rachael Hoey.