The GBP830 million Anglian Water Pension Scheme is actively reviewing its currency portfolio. It has already terminated Overlay Asset Management and is closely monitoring its other currency manager Record Currency Management due to poor performance. The scheme is contemplating whether to terminate Record Currency and replace it with a new manager for its entire currency portfolio or to drop the asset class completely and invest the money in other alternatives.

FO Intelligence

The National Futures Association has announced the composition of an FX advisory committee. This gives retail FX its first official input into the regulatory process in the US. Retail FX firms have been lobbying for an advisory committee at the NFA for some years. Until now the strange situation has existed whereby members from the futures industry formulated rules for the FX industry with which they competed.

Volume figures released during February confirm further increases in FX flow.

Morgan Stanley is looking to play catch-up in online FX trading as it rolls out its new Matrix platform to clients.

Chris Allington has joined Standard Chartered in a senior role in G10 FX. He is known to be an, "excellent trader with very good customer contacts, especially in the real money and hedge fund spaces". Allington was last at Goldman Sachs, which he joined in March last year. Before that he was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he rose from a humble spot trader to become co-head of G10 currency trading.

BNP Paribas hires across the board; Citi makes key e-commerce sales hire

Currency contracts not structured unfairly; Judgement might set precedent

Big-ticket public deals still get most of the attention. But as the region’s markets mature, investment bankers are focusing below the surface. Their most profitable catch will be found in the local markets of credit, equities and commodities. Chloe Hayward reports from New York.

FO Intelligence

A period of calm let us reconsider the impact of the end and eventual reversal of quantitative easing. Long-term rates must rise, but what of inflation?

With over 12,000 respondents in 2009 and now in its 32nd year, it is the industry's largest, most respected survey.

CME Group clearly has no problem shamelessly pushing their products on the back of their third annual global FX market survey, but perhaps they should take some mathematics lessons first.

Judgment day will come – and not just for Greece.

Greece’s deputy prime minister Theodoros Pangalos displays a firm grasp of what his country is up against.

Apps by Dukascopy (Swiss forex), GFT (FX360) and Easy Forex.

The chairman of US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Gary Gensler, announced Tuesday that the CFTC will be holding a public meeting on March 25 to examine the trading of futures and options in the precious and base metals markets.

WDX Organisation, the company behind the Wocu, or world currency unit, has announced that the new Navitas electronic exchange intends to price marine fuel (also known as bunker fuel) in the synthetic currency, as well as USD, from the second quarter of this year. The marine fuel market is around 200 million metric tonnes a year globally, valued at approximately $100 billion (or 60 billion Wocu) per year.

The National Futures Association (NFA) has announced the composition of an FX advisory committee. This gives retail FX its first official input into the regulatory process in the US. Retail FX firms have been lobbying for an advisory committee at the NFA for some years. Until now the strange situation has existed whereby members from the futures industry formulated rules for the FX industry with which they competed.

Forex.com has announced that they have added two new currency pairs to their service – USD/MXN and USD/ZAR.

ETF Securities, a leading provider of commodity-based ETFs (exchange-traded funds), is expanding its listing of currency exchange-traded funds, also known as currency ETCs.

This week, FX technology provider Integral Development Corp. launched FX Inside Alpha. The press release came with the usual hyperbole: “The most complete solution to take on the challenges of FX algo trading.”

FXall has told the weeklyFiX that it has appointed John Ashworth to the role of global head of enterprise solutions, based in London. Ashworth started his career at IBM, was CEO of Fenics and, most recently worked at Technology for Markets, which developed finteract, the derivatives market collaboration tool.

Roland White the respected FX sales and e-commerce veteran has joined LetstalkFX.com, the soon-to-be-launched digital FX networking venue, as a consultant.

CME Group announced a shift in management this week. Their chief operating officer, Bryan Durkin, takes over the products and services division in addition to his current responsibilities. In his new role as chief operating officer and managing director, products and services he will, “lead both the operations and sales functions for CME Group to focus on increasing product line growth and meeting customer needs worldwide,” according to a CME spokesman.

Swedish FX trading solutions and software developers Aphelion announced on Wednesday that Frank Diasparra (ex Fidelity Investments, ING Barings and ABN Amro) has joined as general manager for North American sales, marketing and support services, based in New York.

Illiquidity has returned to bond markets. Confidence everywhere is falling. Profligacy has moved from the private to the public sector. Where can it lead?

Morgan Stanley is looking to play catch-up in the crucial world of online FX trading as it rolls out its new Matrix platform to clients.

RBS has consolidated its sales and trading into a FICC (fixed interests, currencies and commodities) division with immediate effect, apparently after two senior sales people recently jumped ship. The new integrated business will be run globally by co-heads Michael Lyublinsky and Peter Rading.

Following record volumes in Q4 2009, when average daily volume reached $30.0 billion, January was a steady month for Hotspot, registering average volume of $30.8 billion. That is still a 131.5% increase over January 2009’s average volume of $13.3 billion.