Derivs - FX

Dealers representing more than 60% of the foreign exchange market have pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the US. Citi, JP Morgan, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS have all entered guilty pleas over their foreign exchange conduct on Wednesday.

UBS has paid another $545m in fines for Libor and FX manipulation, as well as pleading guilty to its to wire fraud related to Libor. The bank has provisioned for these fines, and expects to shrug off the payments in its second quarter numbers.

After the credit crisis, the compliance crunch. Market players wrangling with the regulatory ringwraiths Dodd-Frank, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and the Market in Financial Instruments Directive, to name a few, are buried under sprawling compliance and capital efficiency demands. It’s time to outsource.

Changing regulations, evolving cost structures and collateral optimisation systems moving to the front office are forcing buyside firms to consider outsourcing their operations, according to a leading market research firm.

Société Générale Prime Services has begun executing and clearing non-deliverable forwards through a central counterparty, to allow users to gain margin efficiency and risk protection.

Banks and derivatives market participants that outsource their IT requirements should select vendors who differentiate themselves from competition, play to their strengths, and who will look to the future, according to one market intelligence chief.

The board of Euronext NV has appointed an interim CEO following Dominique Cerutti’s resignation announcement on April 22.

As part of its business expansion into the Americas, the trade repository UnaVista has hired a regulatory, risk and compliance veteran for the firm’s US expansion efforts.

Seven banks operating in Singapore are now subject to a framework the Monetary Authority of Singapore has established to determine domestically systemic important banks (D-Sibs).

The European Securities and Markets Authority approved operational status for 10 central counterparties to operate in third countries as part of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation.

Lloyds Bank has hired a new head of US FX sales, based in New York.

The Australian Securities Exchange has joined up with the China Futures Association to expand commodity and interest rate derivative markets in the Pacific through shared training and personnel exchanges.