Derivs - People and Markets

The Commodity Futures and Trading Commission — the top derivatives regulator in the US — laid out the risk that climate change poses to financial stability in stark terms in a report it released on Wednesday.

Barclays has appointed Todd Sandoz and Paul Leech as permanent co-heads of global equities.

The tension between the EU and UK over Brexit ratcheted up this week, with the prospect of the UK reneging on the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement rearing up. Rising political tension could now boil over into talks on financial services.

Market observers believe that investors in open-ended debt funds need to be disincentivised more than they are at present from scrambling to liquidate their holdings in a market downturn.

Derivatives counterparties breathed easy in March when the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions announced a year’s delay in the introduction of initial margin rules. But in Europe — with the deadline already passed — legal confirmation has still not appeared.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has said that making sure staff could work remotely hindered the ability of financial firms to work on regulatory and IT projects, in a final report calling for the implementation of a set of rules on settlement discipline — including on mandatory buy-ins — to be delayed until 2022.

Klaus Löber has been selected by the European Securities and Markets Authority as chair of its CCP supervisory committee. ESMA has also picked two other members; all three will be assessed by the European Parliament.

The use of exchange-traded funds labelled as addressing environmental, social and governance themes is rising rapidly, as investors believe they allow them to track ESG indices more easily and cheaply, without necessarily having to engage intensively with ESG matters.

UBS reckons it has a hit upon a ‘unique formula’ for growth as it expands its investment banking offering to its high net worth clients, writes David Rothnie.

Société Générale and Natixis have purged their senior ranks following second-quarter losses and to prepare for strategic revamps, but David Rothnie thinks the future will remain challenging for both.

Financial firms’ relentless push to boost their data offerings received a check this week with the release of an industry survey that indicates a decline in market data spending for 2021.

Some of the world’s top-tier financial institutions want changes in how central counterparty clearing house (CCP) resolutions are executed.