Gain Capital announced on Monday that it has been selected as a primary clearing partner for Korea Investment & Securities (KIS).

Fiserv, the financial services tech house, has enhanced the FX capabilities of TradeFlow, its multi-asset, post-trade processing solution, to reduce the cost and effort of pre- and post-settlement activity for investment managers.

Alpari announced on Tuesday the launch of a new local office in Germany.

Retail and institutional platform Forex Capital Markets (FXCM) announced on Wednesday the launch of oil, gold and stock index contracts for difference on its Trading Station FX platform.

Newly established UK Innovative Financial Designs Ltd is offering managed accounts driven by hand-picked successful retail FX traders. The signals from the traders’ systems are combined and certain controls are overlaid. According to Ian Lockwood, innovativeFD’s director of trading: “The strategy of using a diversified team of traders coupled with these automated risk controls aims to smooth out volatility whilst achieving positive returns in all market conditions.”

UK sandwich chain Eat looks like it will finally be sold to Waitrose.

Last weekend’s Sunday Times revealed an idea the government is apparently considering to divest itself of its £70 billion stake in Lloyds and RBS: convertible gilts.

Thinking about Greece’s problems led me to wonder if there might be something positive in this mess for Turkey.

Gus Rieunier, head of currency options at State Street in London, resigned Tuesday. Sources say he’s off to Saxo in Copenhagen. The Frenchman joined State Street in 2003 from Commerzbank.

This is doing the rounds but in case you have missed it:

Citi has hired Osamu Takashima as a currency strategist at its Tokyo office. The bank says the appointment highlights its commitment to its expanding FX franchise in Japan.

Lyndsay Glynn has left her role as vice-president in institutional sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London. Glynn is on gardening leave until July; sources say this is another hire by Citi’s real money investor FX sales team. Before joining what was then Merrill, Glynn was in real money fund sales at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

Michael Jones has joined Citi to run Asia-Pacific FX prime client services out of Singapore. A New Zealander fluent in Japanese, Jones will report to Andy Coyne, Citi’s head of FX prime and G10 e-commerce. Jones previously occupied a similar role for RBS.

Sources allege that there is a secret memorandum at Citi, unseen by the weeklyFiX, that reveals the bank’s new strategy to get back to the top of the Euromoney FX poll.

It is no longer forbidden to mention exit from the monetary union.

HSBC’s global banking and markets division has netted profits of $20 billion over the past three years. So much for those who say it can’t do investment banking. Clients, even in equity capital markets, are turning to HSBC. The challenge facing Stuart Gulliver and his team is to maintain the momentum.

Internet firm hires Bloomberg FX head; may look beyond data and analytics

Icap has received final regulatory approval to complete the acquisition of the remaining 61.78% of stock in Swedish-based post-trade services company TriOptima.

The deadline for comments on the proposals of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission about retail foreign exchange passed on March 22. However a date for a decision on the proposals has not yet been announced.

Over the past 12 months the main focus of corporate treasury departments, banks and dedicated cash and treasury management system and service suppliers has been on controlling fraud and minimizing reputational risk, improving connectivity and automating bank relationship and general treasury management. By Jack and Wolfi Large.

Companies want their financial supply chain financing and processing to be as efficient and cost effective as possible. But the solutions they dream of are still some way off. By Jack and Wolfi Large.

Banks and regulators want a move to more cost-effective, attractive and easy-to-use payment systems. But the solutions they offer must also be attractive for consumers and businesses. By Jack and Wolfi Large.

This article appears courtesy of Global Investor

For most of the banks taking part in this year’s cash management review, 2009 was a year of consolidation and rationalization to ensure survival and set the framework for future growth. For most of the banks’ corporate clients it has also been a year of consolidation because of the continuing impact of the financial crisis. By Jack and Wolfi Large.

G10 FX options trader Julian Weiss has left Credit Suisse. Talk is he will soon join BNP Paribas, in which case he’ll be reporting to Paolo Nicolosi, its global head of G10 FX options.

It was a little quiet on the people front until an interesting rumour started circulating this week.

The deadline for comments on the proposals of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) about retail foreign exchange passed last Monday. However a date for a decision on the proposals has not yet been announced.

Tullett Prebon has teamed with the London Stock Exchange-owned Sri Lankan tech house MillenniumIT for the development of its electronic trading systems.

FX platform Forex Capital Markets announced the opening of a Berlin office on Wednesday. This is the sixth new FXCM office opened since January 2009, following Paris, Sydney, Dubai, Milan and Santiago.

Leading platform FXall recently exceeded daily FX volume of $100 million on a single-count basis.