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Reuters – The average number of daily foreign exchange payment instructions rose in August from the previous month, data from FX settlement system CLS Bank showed on Friday.
The average volume of payment instructions was 589,446, with an average value of $3.33 trillion in August. Volumes were up 3 percent from 572,214 in July, although the average value was down 0.3 percent from $3.34 trillion the previous month, it said.
Reuters – Eden Rock Structured Finance has seen its value drop further in 2009, leaving some investors saying they are worried they may get back little of their money in the hedge fund, which is due to be wound up after losses last year.
Lack of foreign exchange hedging pummelled the fund’s asset values by up to 8.5 percent in July, according to preliminary company estimates seen by Reuters.
This is London – It also led many in the City to believe the Bank favours a weak currency, prompting a series of downbeat forecasts today. “I’m super bearish on the pound,” said Hans-Guenter Redeker, the London-based head of foreign exchange at BNP Paribas.
“The Bank of England has made it clear it can’t afford a stronger currency.” He forecast the pound would fall to $1.50 in 12 months.
John Taylor, chief executive of New York hedge fund FX Concepts, said sterling will “get crushed” and sink as low as $1.45 in the coming months.
“The fundamentals in the UK are certainly not pretty,” he said. “It’s a race for the least ugly of the candidates, and I would argue that the US is going to be the least ugly for a while.” Others were more upbeat and said the measures taken by the Bank and the Government to ease the slowdown will boost sterling. HSBC predicted the pound would rise to $1.75 by the end of next year — midway between the high of $2.12 in November 2007 and the low of $1.38 in March this year.
Bloomberg – Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, Europe’s largest hedge-fund manager, spun off groups of credit and currency traders to manage two new funds, people familiar with the situation said.
Luke Ding, who trades foreign exchange for the flagship Brevan Howard Master Fund, will manage Brevan Howard Macro FX, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the plan hasn’t been made public. The Luxembourg-registered fund will be open to individual and institutional investors.
