Lethbridge Herald - The top cop at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is leaving the government less than a week after receiving an angry dressing-down before Congress over the agency’s failure to detect a massive alleged fraud scheme.

The SEC said Monday that Linda Thomsen is leaving to pursue opportunities in the private sector, but did not provide further details. She has been the agency’s enforcement director since May 2005, under two previous SEC chairmen.

A replacement for Thomsen wasn’t named. The leading candidate was Robert Khuzami, a former federal prosecutor who is managing director and general counsel of investment firm Deutsche Bank.

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Tags: chairmen, congress, cop, deutsche bank, failure, former-federal-prosecutor, fraud scheme, general counsel, investment-firm, lethbridge herald, managing director, private sector, robert khuzami, securities-and-exchange, securities-and-exchange-commission, thomsen

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Deutsche Bank’s foreign exchange (FX) trading platform, dbFX.com, reported a surge in customer numbers in 2008 as FX grew as an asset class of choice for investors amid the financial crisis.

The trading platform saw customer numbers increase by over 250%, as investors looked to FX as an alternative, and uncorrelated, asset class to equities and bonds. Volumes also notably increased from 2007, as investors took advantage of significant volatility in the market.

From a currency perspective, the EUR/USD was the most popular currency pair on the platform accounting for 41% of all trades, versus 20% of volume the previous year.

"Retail FX’s popularity as an asset class truly soared in 2008 from a customer and trading perspective," Betsy Waters, Global Director of dbFX.com, commented, "Looking ahead, we’re very bullish about the long term prospects for retail FX. As active traders become disenchanted with the equity markets they will turn to the FX markets for trading opportunities. In many countries, retail traders can only buy and hold equities, while FX markets offer the ability to buy and sell currencies based on your market views."

"Ultimately, FX is proven to be uncorrelated to bond and equity markets so it’s no surprise that retail investors are looking to FX, which is a proven asset class with institutional investors as a means of generating returns.” Waters concluded.

Tags: accredited-investors, active traders, asset class, customer numbers, dbfx, deutsche bank, fx markets, fx trading, global director, hedgeco, institutional-investors, palm-beach, retail investors, retail traders, term prospects, trading platform, volatility

Bloomberg -  Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest bank, said it suffered no losses from its U.S. hedge funds CQ Capital and Distressed Opportunities.

The Frankfurt-based company invested no capital in the hedge funds, which are for institutional asset management clients, spokesman Tim Oliver Ambrosius said in a telephone interview today.

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Tags: ag germany, ambrosius, bloomberg, deutsche bank, deutsche bank ag, frankfurt, institutional asset management, losses, management-clients, spokesman, telephone-interview