-95- Government securities, municipal bonds, high yield debt, and asset-backed securities. The Chicago office booked (i.e., held and risk-managed) all swaps the notional principal amounts of which were denominated in U.S. or Canadian dollars. Swaps booked in Chicago but originating outside of FNBC’s Chicago office (e.g., at the London office32) were known as “linked deals”. Linked deals are a type of internal contract that transfers the external exposure on a swap, as well as the responsibility for cashflows and market risk, from one FNBC trading office to another. In order to book in Chicago a deal originating in another office (e.g., London), FNBC entered into a mirror swap with the origination office to transfer the swap from the origination office to Chicago. Carveouts for linked deals were claimed at the linked office; i.e., the office that held and risk-managed the swap. C. Swaps Operations Personnel 1. Overview During the relevant years, FNBC’s swap operation was divided into a front office and a back office. The front office consisted of (1) traders, (2) marketers, (3) financial engineers who designed new instruments and structured transactions, and (4) the support staff for the first three categories of 32 The London office specialized in the trading of European and Asian currencies.Page: Previous 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011