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"The client called me a while back and offered to spill all the dirt on the FX industry, but only if I signed a non-disclosure agreement"

There’s a nice little rumour going around that FX dealers in Royal Bank of Scotland’s Singapore branch sent their new colleagues at ABN Amro some RBS-labelled rugby jerseys and caps. Unfortunately, RBS doesn’t have an FX trading room on the island, but expect this one to run and run. I hear talk that a haggis has also made the short walk across Bishopsgate in London. I know the Dutch may not renowned for their culinary skills, but in my opinion, no amount of Heineken can wash that particular dish down.

"FX is like a cracked bath, where the taps are running but the water is leaking out."

"The issue of how much CLS is charging is fairly emotive, but it is not a given that it is too expensive. That view seems to emanate from those who reside in the front end of the very active banks."

Ice Futures this week announced that it will start listing a raft of FX contracts on its electronic trading screens on November 9. The contracts should be familiar, as they are the same as those traded on the old Nybot and Finex floors in New York and Dublin. The exchange put its relatively popular dollar index contract back in July. So far, these have not expanded significantly, but the exchange should not be under-estimated and it may well present the CME, which it fought to takeover the CBOT, with some real competition in its backyard.

Add your own comments to, and read the views of: RBS Operations; Arthur Cousins, Director Strategy and Product Development, Standard Bank; Ed Pla, Global Head of FX Prime Services, UBS; Martin Rettich, managing director - custody & transaction services (incl. CLS), Credit Suisse; Clare Francis, managing director, financial markets sales at Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets; Roland Kipper, Processing Services, Commerzbank; Michael duCharme, Russell Currency Management Group. Expert FX comment by people in the know.

Add your own comments to, and read the views of: Martin Rettich, managing director - custody & transaction services (incl. CLS), Credit Suisse; Clare Francis, managing director, financial markets sales at Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets; Roland Kipper, Processing Services, Commerzbank; Michael duCharme, Russell Currency Management Group. Expert FX comment by people in the know.

The UK has US-like symptoms of a housing bubble and a sub-prime mortgage market, fed by unscrupulous selling, inadequate due diligence and lax supervision. Expect changes in financial market regulation.

Having seemingly lost out to Royal Bank of Scotland in the battle to take over ABN Amro, at least Barcalys will take some comfort from poaching a senior salesman from its UK rival. Sources say that Sam Ford, believed to have been the global head of structuring at RBS has joined Barclays as its head of UK mid-cap corporate marketing. Neither bank had commented by the time of writing.

There has been plenty of discussion about what this will mean both for retail firms and for bucket shops. This week I was contacted by an old mucker who had hired corporate investigators to dig up some dirt on a specific someone. "Do your own research," I said, adding he should perhaps have a look at one of my past stories, which might help more than the corporate investigators.

"I believe that the readership of this column is generally smart, and also highly cynical. I don’t believe that it merely wants to read regurgitated press releases about the latest knob that’s been added to this or that platform, or how wonderful someone’s business must be because it’s had a record day in some currency nobody else trades. Reporting bad news is very much part of the job."

When I joined Midland Bank, it had in place a discretionary bonus scheme.