Drake Management, the $11 billion global macro fund, has said it will be shutting its two remaining funds after poor performance. Its largest fund dropped 24% last year. Anthony Faillace, Drake’s CIO, has built up a solid reputation, however, after the fund returned more than 40% in 2006. The firm is expected to create some successor funds for investors that want to stay with it.

The obsession about Goldman Sachs in the financial world – not least among its competitors – is nothing new.

Standard Chartered has opened a branch in Paris to tap into the considerable flow it already sees from French corporates and financial institutions. The bank says the branch will facilitate access for those French firms looking to capitalize on the huge investment flows between key markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The team in Paris will be led by Raoul Leblanc.

As the structured finance market struggles to reinvent itself, the orgy of recrimination among constituents is intensifying.

Barclays Capital has hired Rudy Alexis from Bank of America, where he was head of FX sales Europe. Sources say he will join the bank as a managing director to run its Iberian, Italian and new markets corporate FX sales team and report to Jim O’Neill, Barclays’ co-head of UK and European corporate foreign exchange and corporate risk advisory.

The 2008 Global Awards for excellence

As part of the decision-making process for the Awards for Excellence, Euromoney journalists conduct numerous interviews with senior bankers who aim to convince us why they should win.

NYSE plans rule changes to improve the competitiveness of its trading floor.

Man Group has bought a 25% stake in alternative investment manager Nephila Capital. The Bermuda-based manager specializes in insurance-based instruments such as catastrophe bonds, weather derivatives and insurance-linked securities.

Appetite for distressed ABS is not nearly sufficient to mop up supply.

Institutional investment in commodity markets is boon not bane.

Widespread speculation about the likely purchaser of Bank of America’s equity prime brokerage business has come to an end.

Barings, Castlepoint, AIG, Eclectica, to name but a few, have all set up agriculture funds in the past 12 months to cash in on expected commodity price increases. And if returns to date are anything to go by, more will be joining them.

We could be living through the last days of the independent investment banks.

FSA forces disclosure of significant short positions in companies undertaking rights issues while issuers look for a quicker route to market.

Jack Jeffery, former chief executive of EBS, has joined option pricing specialist SuperDerivatives as chief operations officer. Jeffery will lead SuperDerivatives’ management team and oversee the execution of its business strategy. He will be based in London. The company has also employed Anton Aucamp, who worked with Jeffery at EBS, as its head of marketing.

It’s a truism that hindsight is 20/20 vision. But those who spot the signals of turning markets are visionaries and those who act on these signals are true geniuses.

The firm appears to have timed the launch of its upgraded option system to perfection.

Last month’s Global ABS conference in Cannes was shaping up to be more of a wake than its usual annual party as things in the market went from bad to worse in the first quarter this year. But speakers at the event in June were (not surprisingly, given what they do for a living) determinedly upbeat about the market’s prospects. "We come to praise Caesar, not to bury him," declared Clifford Chance’s Kevin Ingram in the opening panel.

'The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable' is an excellent read, but anyone who talks about the credit crunch in these terms is not being intellectually honest.

Icap has confirmed the launch of its web-based version of EBS.

"We’ve certainly seen some clients actively seeking out firms that have avoided the worst of the problems. I should say ‘there, but for the grace of God’... but the truth is, we’ve so far avoided massive write-downs and that’s allowed us to focus on our clients and their needs, and not have to be very focused on ourselves"

The restructuring of Cheyne’s SIV could provide a blueprint for other stricken vehicles; Blackrock in the frame to manage StanChart’s SIV.

Tight spreads and a lack of differentiation between issuers are things of the past in the covered bond markets. But perhaps this is more “normal” than the bull market situation.

Many hedge funds are significantly more hedged that they were one year ago, says Steve Gross, principal of Penso Capital Markets, a New York asset management and risk management firm.

The announcement of the creation of a central counterparty for over-the-counter credit default swap trades has been described as one of the biggest developments in the history of the market.

Perhaps Credit Suisse is seeking to reach the parts other banks dare not reach for?

Underlying the headlines are distortions in the market that can be overcome by liberalization.

Voracious risk appetite propelled Goldman’s earnings in the good times and induced rivals to follow suit. Only when the crash came did they learn, too late, how good a risk manager Goldman is. By managing itself well and avoiding the worst hits, while rivals are clearing up their own mess, Goldman has enhanced its client franchises. It is open for business with customers and reminding them why they wanted to deal with the firm in the first place. How has Goldman achieved this? Peter Lee asks the firm’s senior management to answer the question.

Tudor Investment Group, the $18 billion alternatives firm, has hired Greg Hanley and Alan Mintz, co-heads of the distressed debt group at Bear Stearns, to head a new business focusing on credit-related strategies. Three other Bear Stearns employees are also joining the group.