“Oh, these are among the most toxic instruments we’ve created. And they’re absolutely a bull market instrument. In a bear market, it’s not a question of maybe losing just a percentage point. You can lose 10 points in a heartbeat.”
One senior debt capital markets banker spills the beans about the new fad in corporate capital-raising – hybrid debt [see Why corporate hybrids are not all they’re dressed up to be]
“In any other country people would applaud somebody like Ackermann. The witch-hunt against him saddens me because it is doing damage to the investment climate in Germany. We need more Ackermanns in this country, not fewer.”
A senior banker at one of Deutsche Bank’s competitors in Germany bemoans the campaign waged against Deutsche’s chief executive. Needless to say, he works for a foreign-owned bank [see Deutsche brings it all back home]
“As a result of the use of algorithms, FX trading banks of the future will simply consist of a computer, a man and a dog. The computer will be there to handle the transactions and the dog to stop the man from interfering with its trading programs. The man’s job will be to feed the dog.”
Chris Skinner, vice-president of research consultancy TowerGroup, predicts a future for FX traders and pedigree chums [see Algorithmic foreign exchange is more than just flavour of the month]