Britain’s top law firms might be taking unnecessary foreign exchange risk as they expand their business into emerging markets, according to research from Barclays Corporate.

The latest Commitment of Traders report issued on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed the flight to the safety of the US dollar reached new highs. The IMM leveraged funds’ net position in USD relative to the aggregate of the 8 other most actively traded currencies reached a record USD long of $7.4billion.

China’s rapid expansion as a leading trading nation presents opportunities for banks to develop solutions to internal and international cash management needs. In this debate bankers and corporate clients discuss what has been achieved so far and what still needs to be done.

Anello Asset Management, the independent alternative investment manager that specializes in systematic trading of major spot foreign exchange and global futures markets, has hired Stavros Loizou to manage the company’s newly launched Mantis program, the company said in a statement.

Japan’s finance minister, Jun Azumi, announced today that the government will raise its reserves for yen intervention to 165 trillion yen, up from 150 trillion yen in the third supplementary budget, likely to be formed in October.

Since going live more than a decade ago, Bloomberg’s multi-dealer FX platform FXGO has struggled to gain traction, while other providers, such as FXall and Currenex, have flourished. Now, though, Bloomberg’s perseverance seems to be paying off. FXGO now appears to be a competitive threat in the multi-dealer e-trading market, which is worth an estimated $48 trillion.

The ECB won’t cut its policy rate, but is more likely to expand its arsenal of non-standard measures to alleviate credit conditions, say economists at Société Générale.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is launching a spot foreign-exchange trading algorithm, RBS Agile that allows clients to automatically manage gamma sensitivity associated with FX option portfolios, the bank said in a statement.

EURUSD experienced a short squeeze in the European session, following mildly positive news out of Europe. Traders should be wary of further topside correction ahead before initiating short-EUR exposure, says RBS.

Investors should be wary about investing in dedicated currency managers and look for more flexible alternatives, such as global macro funds, that have a strong FX flavour but can invest in other asset classes, says an asset consultant.

High-net-worth individuals are boosting their allocations to currency investments at a time when they are reducing their exposures to alternative investments overall, as they seek more liquid instruments and better returns than are available from traditional asset classes.

Senior Nomura debt capital market executives say issuers must be ready to move at short notice, as well as look at alternatives.

Credit Suisse, which began trading dual-currency investment securities on its structured products platform last year, is to expand its offering in Singapore and Hong Kong next month, with plans to add Latin America and Tokyo by the end of the year, says its global head of FX structured product sales, Alan Thomas.

Gain Capital is set to launch a new execution desk for Gain GTX, its institutional ECN (electronic communication network) offering next week. The desk gives clients 24-hour access to its FX services for advice on transactions and pricing, as well as market surveillance for FX products including spot, swaps, non-deliverable forwards and options.

High frequency trading firms in the FX markets are unlikely to be a source of systemic risk or the cause of an FX market flash crash, as occurred in equity markets in May 2010, an event largely blamed on the high-frequency algorithmic traders, according to a report published by the Bank for International Settlements.

The latest Commitment of Traders report issued on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed that aggregate US dollar speculative long positions had surged to their highest level since June 2010, while euro and sterling short positions reached record levels.

Asian currencies, already suffering their biggest losses in more than 14 years, may be in for further pain as the potential for emerging market bond portfolio liquidation rises, says Standard Chartered.

David Cruikshank speaks exclusively to Euromoney about putting trust in partnerships and the changes technology is bringing

Despite the commonly held theory that mandatory central counterparty clearing would lead to a wave of consolidation, a BNP Paribas executive reveals why this has not happened

After Siemens, Colin Kerr is confident in the banks

China’s unreasonably high levels of excess currency reserves aren’t optimal for resource allocation, but finding a better use for those reserves will take time, says the governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiaocuan, in an exclusive interview with Euromoney.

Risks of liquidation triggers for Japanese retail investors in loss-making yen shorts is growing, as USDJPY and AUDJPY near key support levels, according to Royal Bank of Canada. Those triggers would exacerbate a fall in dollar-yen and yen crosses.

In defence of what it sees as the US trying to export its problems through excessive liquidity, Brazil’s government has not shirked from competitive devaluation policies. The most recent, in July, was supposed to be a targeted and specific strike against currency speculators through a new FX derivative tax.

Barclays Capital has slashed its one-month and three-month forecasts for the euro after an investor survey indicated European banking contagion is the biggest threat to global equity markets in the next quarter.

Morgan Stanley launched a new FX positioning index in late September, which tracks G10 currencies. EuromoneyFXnews will report timely updates to Morgan Stanley’s positioning tracker to compliment our covering of the CFTC’s weekly IMM data as well as other positioning metrics.

The French bank reveals that the continuing deregulation of the Renminbi will mean that it will look to increase its services in Asia.

Peter Antico, global head of G10 FX at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has left the firm, according to people familiar with the situation. He was appointed to the position in March.

UBS has hired Richard Elliott for its global options team, as part of its efforts to prepare the bank for new regulations on currency derivatives trading that are likely to be implemented in 2012, the bank has confirmed to EuromoneyFXNews.

Saxo Bank, the second-biggest retail FX provider, will open an office in Moscow next month, the head of group relations, Kasper Elbjorn, has confirmed to EuromoneyFXNews.

The global head of foreign exchange at Unicredit, has left the firm, according to two people familiar with the situation. Unicredit wasn’t immediately available for comment.