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Hedge Fund Poll: The world’s best hedge fund managers

Albania has finally secured a credit rating in a move that the authorities in Tirana hope will help boost the Balkan republic’s investment profile with international investors. Moody’s Investors Service assigned a Ba1 country ceiling for foreign-currency bonds and a B1 issuer rating to the government. Moody’s also awarded a B2 foreign-currency bank deposit ceiling along with a local-currency country ceiling of A3 and a local-currency bank deposit ceiling of Baa1. All ratings carry a stable outlook.

Hedge Fund Poll: The world’s best hedge fund managers

Hedge Fund Poll: The world’s best hedge fund managers

Every so often the insurance-linked securities (ILS) sector rears its head and FIG bankers get excited that they will have a rich vein of new assets to bring to the capital markets. Around two years ago the great hope was that value in force (VIF) securitizations from UK insurance companies would take off following a couple of landmark transactions and regulatory encouragement from the Financial Services Authority, but activity there has slowed to a near halt. Once again there are now signs that investment banks and insurance brokers are ramping up their product capabilities amid a pick-up of deal flow in the past year.

Credit markets remain more alert to dangers of CDOs and the credit squeeze than equity markets, but if the tail strikes, too, watch out! We mean carry-trade unwind.

Icap is believed to have added another currency pair to EBS this week. Sources say it listed GBP/CHF on the platform last Monday (July 23). The company has been steadily adding new currencies to EBS throughout 2007.

The CME is considering introducing volatility-quoted FX options to its Globex trading platform.

UK readers might have recently read about Storm the Dog, which had a bionic paw fitted after having his lower limb amputated.

News reaches me that Icap has won a court case that has its origins way back in a scandal that took place either in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I have to rely a lot on my memory for this one, but older hands may well recall it.

“I got blackballed because I wrote something negative. If I had been more positive, I would have got the job – so it’s my own fault really.”

This week got off to a fairly hectic start with a sharp move in USD/JPY. There’s no need for a market report, but apparently some barriers in EUR/JPY were targeted at 169.00 by some Russian players.