Derivatives Conference Features Uncertainty, High-Cost San Francisco FUN
Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
Financiers, lawyers, traders and accountants gathered this week at the annual International Swaps and Derivatives Association conference in San Francisco …
By Thursday night they needed to put out of their minds the specter of sweeping legislation to regulate the derivatives.
Financiers, lawyers, traders and accountants gathered this week at the annual International Swaps and Derivatives Association conference in San Francisco …
By Thursday night they needed to put out of their minds the specter of sweeping legislation to regulate the derivatives.
Financiers, lawyers, traders and accountants gathered this week at the annual International Swaps and Derivatives Association conference in San Francisco …
By Thursday night they needed to put out of their minds the specter of sweeping legislation to regulate the derivatives.
They escaped to Supperclub – an up-scale international chain originating in Amsterdam, then San Francisco, and now in Singapore & elsewhere –
where some plopped on the beds that covered the floor while a waiter in denim short shorts, suspenders and a scarf delivered drinks. [br]
The truly relaxed turned over on their tummies and received back massages from a dreadlocked member of the Supperclub staff, according to this piece in the New York Times.
By midnight, others ended up in the S & M chamber with a bed-to-ceiling stripper pole and videos of dominatrixes playing in the background.
“They don’t seem nervous,” said Iam Crowley, who also happened to be at the establishment because his girlfriend puts on a burlesque show for the guests.
But during more sober and somber conditions at the conference at the posh Fairmont hotel on Nob Hill the next morning,
some of these people confessed that they were in fact very nervous about the future of the derivatives industry.
The drive to bring a bill to the Senate floor that will set tighter guidelines around derivatives trading has left many spooked, but largely unapologetic.
Politicians want derivatives swapped in a more open fashion that resembles the way people exchange stocks, bonds and pork belly futures.
“Generally speaking, there is a push against what the legislators are trying to do,” said Masaya Yamashiro, a vice president at Sumitomo Trust and Banking.
“But, obviously, something went wrong to an extent.”
[Guess so – to the extent that the entire world financial system went into free fall,
then resulting directly in a global recession, which, doctored stats aside, is STILL in full swing …
so it seems something DID go wrong – TO AN EXTENT] [br]
The United States has led the call for greater regulation in part because politicians hope to leave their mark on Wall Street ahead of November elections, Sarah J. Lee, associate general counsel for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told one session at the convention.
“Obviously, things are to going to become much more complicated,” Ms. Lee said.
And with complexity, attendees fear, will come costs and an end to the boom times so many people at the derivatives conference have enjoyed.
Some traders assume the worst.
Robert G. Pickel, the executive vice chairman of the derivatives association, said he had even been receiving questions about whether this would be the last event of its kind. “I can ensure it is not,” Mr. Pickel said during a session. “Don’t even kid around about that.”
Richard M. Schetman, who specializes in derivatives at the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, said younger people were starting to question whether they should stay in the industry.
“I think people have accepted that regulation is going to happen and that the business will probably be less profitable.”
Nitin Gulabani, the global head of rates at Standard Chartered Bank, said during a panel discussion,
“As an industry, we just have to accept the moral obligation of what we are doing and how we do things.”
[ We’ll see 😉 ]
As for dialing things back a bit given the widespread scrutiny surrounding the derivatives industry, well, that did not quite happen.
“Given everything that is going on, I would have assumed they would tone things down at the conference,”
said Markus Grünewald, the head of over-the-counter derivatives at Norddeutsche Landesbank in Germany.
“But things still seem rather extravagant.”
[Guess so 😉 ]
