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BM&F, the Brazilian derivatives exchange, has announced that it will introduce electronic trading for USD/BRL. The venture is a joint initiative with the Brazilian Federation of Banks and the Central Bank of Brazil. In an external memo, BM&F says it is currently responsible for the registration and settlement of about 95% of transactions in the domestic USD/BRL market. Around 85% of this is traded OTC.

I’m not sure how much of a market remains, but CLS and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) have successfully launched a settlement service for the FX transactions generated as a result of OTC credit derivatives transactions.

Deutsche is looking to go upmarket by targeting of high-net-worth clients by combining the expertise of its global markets FX and private wealth management businesses. A new specialist private clients FX team will now sit alongside the global business’s existing institutional and corporate sales force. Deutsche has recruited Roger Posch from UBS, where he was most recently head of corporate and institutional clients, Asia Pacific, to head up the business. Posch reports to Neehal Shah, global head of investor foreign exchange sales. He will be joined in London by Christoph Ehrbar, Ian Henderson and Nadeem Ladki. All worked previously at UBS, as did Martin Brunner, who joins in Switzerland. Making up the team is Leong Kwok Liew, who was previously at Credit Suisse.

Saxo Bank has appointed Craig Russell as its chief market strategist for China. The bank says the hire underscores one of its primary strategies of boosting its presence in Asia. Russell previously held roles at Chicago-based Ikon Global Markets, as well as at Alaron Trading and ODL Securities.

Millennium Global Investments has hired Claire Dissaux as global economist and strategist. Dissaux will be based in London, where she will work with the teams managing Millennium’s FX products, including currency overlay, multi-strategy and hedge fund products. Her main focus will be on macroeconomic and FX research. Dissaux joins from Calyon.

David Ogg, the head of Lava FX, has left the company. At the time of writing, no further information was available about his reasons for his departure. Lava Trading is a wholly owned subsidiary of Citi.

ABN AMRO has issued a reverse convertible note linked to a financial sector exchange-traded fund, on the back of a reverse inquiry. The three-month note offers an annualized 14% and return of capital, providing the Financial Select Sector SPDR(R) Fund doesn't drop below 80% of its value at launch. The fund is diversified across financial service firms, including names such as Citigroup and American International Group.

News broke this week of what appears to be an incredible Ponzi scheme in the US FX market.

Systems failure, first cited by us last July, is now apparent and will demand months or years to repair. Contagion from the USA is looking more serious than we thought.

Société Générale subsidiary Lyxor Asset Management has launched four new exchange-traded funds that offer access to the Fundamental Index methodology, an alternative index methodology to traditional market-cap weighted indices. The new ETFs are tied to FTSE RAFI indices, which cover major sectors of the U.S., Europe, euro zone and Japan, and aim to beat traditional market-weighted indices that are less volatile.

2007 was a year of achievement for Islamic finance, with growth on all fronts. Yet the sector still faces great challenges, not least in finding and training enough Islamic bankers.

There is a sense of foreboding stalking the market.