Risk management: Saving face: Brazil’s derivatives boom

The small teams of professionals who work for the three clearing houses (foreign exchange, securities, derivatives) at Brazil’s Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros (BM&F) have a claustrophobia-inducing office, locked as they are inside a glass cube that sits in the centre of a larger room inside the exchange’s headquarters. Despite working in this intimidating setting, the clearing houses’ directors are welcoming and their efforts are for now focused on increasing foreigners’ access to and participation in Brazil’s growing derivatives market.