Derivs - FX

In this round-up, China's cross-border trade settlement fell to a near three-year low in February, CME reports record levels of trading in its offshore RMB futures, RMB spot trading fell but swap trading surged on the Moscow Exchange, Singapore renewed its currency swap line, and Deutsche Bank sets up a the first interbank host-to host platform by a foreign bank in China. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB's top stories this week.

Markit has launched a service that allows banks to affirm over-the-counter foreign exchange trades executed by interdealer brokers.

In this round-up, Malaysia opens RMB qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) applications, Macau launches a RMB real time gross settlement (RTGS) payment system, China Construction Bank (CCB) will join the new London silver fix, and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) reported a strong start to RMB currency futures trading in 2016. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB's top stories this week.

It took what some have called "drastic" measures by European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, but Thursday’s short-lived euphoria took Europe’s credit derivative market almost back to where it began the year – only for it and other asset classes to suffer another bout of neuroses and hit reverse.

EU regulators granted a stay of execution to corporate treasury officials as they mandated a slower roll-out of new margin requirements on some of the most popular uncleared derivatives trades. But they stayed firm on a September 1 deadline many believe is untenable. With this temporary reprieve comes also the knowledge that treasuries’ recoursing to swaps strategies will soon become much more challenging.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney confirmed to the UK parliament on Tuesday what currency traders and analysts have been saying for weeks: worries about the EU referendum are sending prices higher for sterling options and raising the risk of a sharp fall in the pound.

European Union regulators have published final draft rules for uncleared derivatives that make important concessions to lobbyists on margin requirements for some derivative contracts, but show no sign of budging on a very tight September 1 deadline for compliance by the biggest players in the market.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney confirmed to the UK parliament on Tuesday what currency traders and analysts have been saying for weeks: worries about the EU referendum are causing higher prices for sterling options and raising the risk of a sharp fall in the pound.

Intercontinental Exchange’s assertion this week that it is mulling an offer for the London Stock Exchange Group, along with rumours of rival interest from CME, has ushered in a ‘phoney war’ with main suitor Deutsche Börse, say market participants — but the ensuing battle makes the future of LSE’s clearing business far from certain.

The CME Group will launch trading of a new dollar index futures contract in April, in collaboration with Bloomberg, with the new index including the offshore RMB (CNH) as one of its currencies.

Traders have been buying yen in spite of clear signals they should do so the from the Bank of Japan. The central bank pushed interest rates into negative territory in January, but instead of exiting yen positions, traders have been building their long exposure, CFTC data suggested this week.

Equity, currency and rates futures traders adopted a riskier posture last week after market prices stabilised, the weekly Commitment of Traders report showed.