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You wait years for an investable FX index and two come along at once. Following hot on the heels of Barclays, Citi has announced the launch of its CitiFX Alpha portfolio of systematic trading strategies. The bank says these allow qualified investors to access FX and it has made four systematic trading strategies – G10 carry, emerging markets carry, trend following and economic factor model – available.

Sources say that Merrill Lynch has poached option traders Lee Cantor and Dave Katalan from Bank of America in New York.

Credit Suisse has promoted Steve Yanez as its global head of FX. As a result, Alain Delelis, Gordon Wallace, Simon Meadows and Ian Green, responsible for spot, derivatives, sales and e-trading, and distribution respectively, will now report to him. Yanez is a Credit Suisse veteran and previously headed up the bank’s short-term interest rate trading area.

Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking has appointed Pascale Moreau and Albert Loo as global heads of interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives activity. The two become members of the bank’s capital raising and financing executive committee and replace Ines de Dinechin, who is now responsible for structured products worldwide. Moreau joined SocGen in 1998, having started her career 1994 in the Caisse des dépots et Consignations as market maker on FRF, DEM and ECU interest rate derivatives and then as a proprietary trader on G7 IR and FX underlyings. Loo started back in 1991 as part of the bank’s IT team in charge of asset management accounting projects.

Many active market participants have started to talk about how liquidity is drying up, although the latest set of figures from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ostensibly suggest everything is still rosy in the FX garden. CME reports that its FX volumes rose by 41% in April over the same month in 2007, averaging 613,000 contracts per day, equivalent to a nominal $88 billion of turnover.

Osman Semerci, Merrill Lynch’s former global head of fixed income, currencies and commodities, and co-president of the EMEA global markets and investment banking business, has joined $1.7 billion alternatives group Duet as its chief executive. Duet Group, which started in 2002 with just $10 million in a single fund, now has 14 funds, and is looking to further expand its range of strategies, in addition to growing its private equity business.

There may be plenty of doom and gloom among private equity practitioners in the US and western Europe as a result of the global credit crunch that has all but dried up their cheap financing. In Russia, though, the mood among their peers is almost euphoric. "I am amazed by how relatively easy it is to raise money for a private equity fund in Russia," says Florian Fenner, managing partner at UFG Asset Management in Moscow, which is fundraising for its second private equity vehicle. UFG is looking to raise at least $500 million and expects to make a first close at least half that figure in May.

Credit Suisse has appointed Chris Tuffey as the new head of European debt syndicate. Tuffey replaces John Fleming, who, after nine years in the job, and 14 at the bank, has left the business. Tuffey has worked at Credit Suisse for 21 years, spending much of the past 10 associated with emerging markets and investment-grade corporate syndication. In addition to syndication, he ran emerging markets origination for the past two years.

The results of the Euromoney credit research poll reveal which banks’ research models are best suited to the troubling environment in which the financial world finds itself, and which enjoy the most support from their management.

Only suckers believe that the remedies applied to the credit crisis have cured the underlying sickness. There’s more painful adjustment to come, and it could last two to five years.

In a further sign that the world’s leading companies view Russia as a core market, US drinks company PepsiCo is paying $1.4 billion to acquire 75% of Lebedyansky, Russia’s leading juice producer. Lebedyansky, which controls 30% of the country’s juice market, reported sales of $800 million last year. "This agreement provides us with a strong platform for continued expansion in one of the world’s fastest-growing juice markets," says Michael White, PepsiCo’s international chief executive. Once the initial purchase is completed a mandatory offer to buy the balance of the outstanding shares, which are listed in Moscow, is set to be launched later this year. Lebedyansky, which controls 30% of the Russian juice market, reported sales of $800 million in 2007.