Derivs - FX

TradeStation Group has sold the accounts of its IBFX/TradeStation Forex subsidiary to OANDA as IBFX looks to exit the forex dealer business.

Options market participants have demanded higher premiums to bear exposure to volatility in the British pound after talks in Brussels failed to produce a decisive deal to help UK prime minister David Cameron win the upcoming referendum.

Rich Ricci, the former chief executive of Barclays investment bank, has joined freemarketFX, a startup FX business, as chairman.

US president Barack Obama is asking Congress to double funding, over the next five years, for Wall Street watchdogs through appropriations and user fees as he seeks to impose new liability linked fees on financial firms.

Derivatives market prices reflect growing uncertainty over the UK's forthcoming referendum on European Union membership, analysts said this week, even though the vote will not be held before June at the earliest and the Brexit campaign is widely expected to fail.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has granted full registration to 18 swap execution facilities (SEFs), upgrading them from the temporary registrations they held before.

Saudi Arabia’s central bank has told the country’s banks to stop selling options on riyal forwards — products which would let investors benefit if the value of the riyal falls.

The CNH-CNY FX gap has narrowed sharply in the wake of Monday's HIBOR fixing spike. In CNY swaps, easing concerns about further yuan depreciation have dampened short-end paying interest and the 1s/5s curve slope has steepened slightly, by Deirdre Yeung of Total Derivatives.

Traders in yen futures may have overreacted to the growth concerns in China, data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has suggested.

5y CNY swaps have been well offered as Chinese equities continue their sell-off. In the short-end though, 1y swaps have been bid on concerns about the yuan. In Hong Kong today HIBOR spiked sharply on CNH liquidity tightness spurred by reports of indirect PBOC intervention, writes Deidre Yeung.

FlexTrade, a New York based trading system provider, looks set to be the latest firm to join the growing field of swap execution facilities (SEFs), gaining a temporary registration from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In the last RMB round-up of 2015, HSBC became the first foreign bank to issue RMB-denominated CDs to corporates in China, Hungary plans RMB bonds in 2016 and Russian bank VTB saw a big boost to its RMB business in 2015. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB’s top stories this week.