WORLD'S BEST DERIVATIVES PROVIDERS 2010 | Global Finance

Global Finance names the 2010 World's Best Derivatives Providers

NEW YORK, October 27, 2010 — The editors of Global Finance have announced the winners of its Best Derivatives Providers awards for 2010. A full report on the awards and the winners will appear in the December issue of Global Finance. This is the sixth year Global Finance has selected banks and exchanges as winners.

Global Finance's editors based selections primarily on in-depth interviews with end-users of derivatives, such as traders, risk managers and portfolio managers of mutual funds, hedge funds and pension funds, with an emphasis on funds that had distinguished themselves with relative outperformance since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007, as well as with financial research analysts and consultants. Sources considered a range of subjective and quantitative criteria such as pricing on transactions, innovation in products, the quality of information provided by providers, the breadth of liquid names in which a provider makes markets, a provider's willingness to use its own balance sheet to provide liquidity for a client, and the inclination of a provider to step into the breach in a high-risk situation.

As the financial crisis began to subside last year and derivatives reform begins to take effect this year, those criteria are now foremost in end-users' decisions of which providers to continue dealing with and which ones to leave by the wayside. Global Finance has learned that, by far, the most important criterion is now pricing as derivatives reform begins to drive an unprecedented level of transparency in commissions, giving clients a newfound advantage in negotiations with their providers.

"The financial crisis was a game-changer for derivatives providers, and our winners are those who have demonstrated to their clients a clear ability to lead the industry in a dramatically altered global financial system," said Joseph Giarraputo, publisher and editorial director of Global Finance.

The full list of winners by type of product, region, and exchange awards for Performance and Achievement follows.