Derivatives

Food Price Speculators Feasting on Financial Innovation

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:00:00 EDT

The controversial practice of food price speculation is hotting up in the UK, undeterred by allegations of distorting markets and unscrupulous speculation. With a public campaign against Goldman Sachs for “gambling on hunger”…

Litigation Watch: Goldman’s Settlement, Unsettling Wall Street?

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:00:00 EDT

Goldman might have settled with the SEC, but disclosure norms for synthetic CDOs are far from settled. The SEC’s $550 million settlement and consent with Goldman Sachs is trailblazing in more ways than one…

EU Watchdog Aims to Push Derivatives onto Exchanges

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:48:13 EDT

Privately negotiated derivatives should be more standardised and traded on exchanges where possible, using incentives rather than mandatory rules for now...

Citigroup and AIG Classified Certain Repos as Sales

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:29:34 EDT

Citigroup Inc and AIG classified more than $11 billion in loans as sales in the second half of 2009, masking the companies' risk levels, filings with the U.S. Securities regulator showed....

Impact of Euro Zone Debt Crisis

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:37:56 EDT

The euro zone's debt woes have raised worries about the outlook for the world economy, which has already been dealt a severe blow by the global financial crisis...

Enforcement Watch: SEC, Goldman Agree to Record CDO Settlement

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:00:00 EDT

The SEC and Goldman Sachs have reached a record $500 million settlement of charges related to insufficient and misleading disclosure. In the case of SEC v. Goldman Sachs and Fabrice Tourre, the Commission charged Goldman with...

Litigation Watch: SEC “Swaps” Insider Trading Loss for Regulatory Win

Thu, 8 Jul 2010 01:00:00 EDT

In a recent insider trading decision, a U.S. federal court in Manhattan ruled against the SEC in its first ever insider trading case involving credit default swaps or CDS…

Watch Out: Yuan May Fall as Volatility Picks Up

Fri, 2 Jul 2010 04:44:48 EDT

Now that China is staying true to its word and letting the yuan trade a bit more freely, analysts and investors outside the mainland may not be prepared for one potential outcome: a yuan drop...

Debt Watch: Two Sides to the Credit Exposure Coin

Thu, 1 Jul 2010 01:30:00 EDT

Sovereign credit risk is an issue beyond the Eurozone – to wit, South African credit, post-World Cup, is causing a stir…