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Appleby, a provider of offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services, has appointed Cayman litigator, Christopher Russell, as partner in the firm’s Cayman Islands office from 1 May 2012.
Russell joins Appleby from Ogier’s Cayman office where, until recently, he led the firm’s litigation group. He is extremely well known in the Cayman Islands where he is regarded by peers as being one of the best lawyers on the island.
Appleby’s Global Practice Group Head for Litigation and Insolvency, Andrew Bolton (pictured) says: “It is excellent news that Chris is joining us. We are already well known in our market for
Ogier has appointment of Richard de Lacy QC to the role of partner and head of the firm’s Cayman litigation practice, from 19 March 2012.
Richard de Lacy brings 30 years of professional experience in the legal profession, not only as a barrister, but also as an academic and trustee. He joins Ogier from leading chambers 3 Stone Buildings in London, where he developed a distinguished reputation in commercial litigation and insolvency through cases in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas.
“We are delighted to be welcoming someone of Richard’s calibre and expertise to our litigation practice,” says Nick
FIX Protocol Limited (FPL), the non-profit, global, industry standards organisation that owns and develops the FIX Protocol messaging language, has issued best practices recommendations to support the trading of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and Interest Rate Swaps (IRS).
As Dodd–Frank reforms seek to achieve greater market transparency by requiring most types of OTC derivatives to be cleared through clearing houses and traded on swaps execution facilities (SEFs), a surge in new market venues is expected within the US. Similar reforms are also expected to emerge from the upcoming MiFID II regulations in Europe. Encouraging adoption of FIX by new and
Mitch Ackles (pictured), a public relations executive specialising in the hedge fund industry, has been elected president of the Hedge Fund Association. Ron S Geffner, a law partner at Sadis & Goldberg LLP and an expert in regulations affecting hedge funds, was elected to his second term as vice president.


The Hedge Fund Association is a non-profit organisation that promotes the understanding and development of the alternative investments industry. Its members include hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, family offices, public and private pension funds, endowments and foundations, high net worth individuals, allocators, and service providers such as prime brokers,
LCH.Clearnet Limited has begun clearing foreign exchange (FX). The service is supported by 14 major market participants who have been actively involved in its establishment. A number of additional participants are scheduled to begin clearing in the coming weeks.
The new service, ForexClear provides clearing for FX Non Deliverable Forwards (NDFs) and was designed in close collaboration with our members. The service has launched with clearing between direct clearing members, whilst actively consulting with clients to deliver a full clearing service to other current and prospective clearing members, and their global clients in due course.
NDFs are cash settled products,
S&P Indices has launched the S&P GIVI (“S&P Global Intrinsic Value Index), combining low volatility and an alternative weighting scheme that weight’s a stock by its calculated intrinsic value, rather than market-capitalisation.
S&P Indices has licensed the S&P GIVI (and its complete family of emerging market and developed sub-indices, a total of over 2000 indices across 46 countries and 7 currencies) to Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). Jim O’Neill, Chairman of GSAM, and Donald Mulvihill, Managing Director at GSAM, conceived the strategy and helped S&P Indices to develop this concept.
The S&P GIVI is constructed from the S&P
Investors in Europe and the United States are on notice that they will eventually be required to execute OTC derivatives trades through centrally cleared transactions. As of late 2011, however, most investors in these markets had not moved to change trading practices to accomodate the incoming rules.
From 2010 to 2011 OTC derivatives investors executed 81% of transaction volume through bilateral OTC contracts and 19% through centrally cleared OTC contracts. Although central clearing rules are moving toward implementation, 60% of these investors have no plans to change the share of their business conducted through centrally cleared trades. In fact, while
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a San Francisco-area investment adviser with defrauding investors by giving them a bogus audit report that embellished the financial performance of the fund in which they were investing.
The SEC alleges that James Michael Murray raised more than USD4.5 million from investors in his various funds including Market Neutral Trading LLC (MNT), a purported hedge fund that claimed to invest primarily in domestic equities. Murray provided MNT investors with a report purportedly prepared by independent auditor Jones, Moore & Associates (JMA). However, JMA is not a legitimate accounting firm but rather a shell
The Alliance of Alternative Asset Professionals (TAAAPs), a non-profit organisation that provides education and up-to-date market information to professionals in the alternative asset industry, has launched a new website featuring informative articles written by industry experts, a calendar of educational and networking events, and information on the numerous charities supported by TAAAPs.
"The goal of TAAAPs is to provide our growing member base with information, resources, and contacts to help them prosper in the alternative asset industry,” says TAAAPs co-founder and president Paul Marino and a partner at the law firm Marino +Associates. “We are excited our new site will
Ernst & Young has re-established an office in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), after a multi-year absence. The global accounting and consulting firm, which has 152,000 employees in 140 jurisdictions globally, has a staff of six in the BVI and hopes that will expand to double figures by mid-summer.
According to Dan Scott, managing partner for Ernst & Young’s Bermuda, Bahamas, BVI and Cayman Islands region the firm was attracted by the BVI’s international reputation for financial services, particularly the strength of the financial services legislation, the regulatory regime and the Commercial Court: “When I look at the BVI, it
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