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State Street Global Markets has asked for Securities and Exchange Commission approval to carry out creation unit trades of exchange-traded funds for affiliated institutions. Under SEC rules, broker/dealers may not perform creation unit trades--which typically involve blocks of around 100,000 shares--for affiliates. SSGM, a State Street subsidiary, is affiliated with the Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts, or SPDR, family of exchange-traded funds. In a letter to the SEC, SSGM said allowing only third-party B/Ds to perform creation unit trades of ETFs is expensive, adding that an affiliate could not influence price by performing such trades.

2008 Awards for excellence

Crises change markets. The Savings & Loans crisis pushed US banks into securitising mortgages; the European ERM crisis ultimately gave birth to the euro; the Asian debt crisis shifted the policy debate in the emerging markets and eventually strengthened them. These are some examples of past experience. What will change after the latest financial crisis? Or more specifically, what will happen to securitisation?

The SEC’s emergency regulation, announced by chairman Christopher Cox Tuesday July 15th, aims to limit some types of short selling to eliminate “unlawful manipulation through naked short selling that threatens the stability of financial institutions.” Euromoney's coverage of past regulations and questionable events is worth a look today.

Emilio Botín, chairman of Santander, Euromoney’s Best Bank in the World 2008, passes on some good advice to fellow bankers.

The US Administration is making up policy as fires break one after the other. The GSE crisis is the biggest yet, and solvency is more difficult to maintain than liquidity.

Next Investments is completing deals to launch actively-managed exchange-traded funds with several big name ETF firms. Next Investments, which created Rydex Investments’ $4 billion CurrencyShares ETF line, would not name the active ETF sponsors but said they are leaders in the space. Right now PowerShares, WisdomTree, and State Street Global Advisors have all either filed or launched actively-managed ETFs.

Dalal Pradal has apparently left Bank of America where she worked as in hedge fund sales in New York. Rumour is that she is off to a Swiss bank in the same centre.

Many banks’ balance sheets have been shot to bits and, as one senior figure told me this week, the investment banking model looks as if it has been irreparably damaged.

It’s always hard to find out what exactly goes on with the hedge funds, particularly prominent ones like Tudor. But I hear that Mark Hillery has left the firm. There’s no indication if his departure is permanent or a sabbatical, or whether it’s because of a bumper or disastrous year. I know which one I’d bet on.

The head hunters are already starting to lick their lips. It looks like one of the first jobs Nasir Afaf is going to have when he arrive at Calyon as head of FX trading will be to recruit a new options team. Market talk suggests Frank Weissbach has resigned although not yet left. He is apparently planning on going to TD Securities to hook up, again, with his old muckers Stephane Coquillaud and Dave Hitchins. Weissbach has barely got his feet warm at the French bank, joining it a little over a year ago from Bank of America he might yet be persuaded to stay. But with the uncertainty of a new boss coming, the chances of him staying look slim