ABN Amro, the biggest Dutch bank, said on Friday it is closing its oil, natural gas and freight derivatives trading operations but denied the change came after trading losses.
"We will not be a market-maker in future in the crude, freight and natural gas markets. This is a strategic refocus, we will continue to be a market-maker in the precious metals and emissions markets," spokesman Piers Townsend told Reuters.
He denied market talk that it was shutting its books because of losses on the freight derivatives market, known as forward freight agreements. "That is not the case. This has been on the cards for a while," Townsend said. Trading sources earlier told Reuters the Dutch bank had lost money on its operations.
"They are closing their book on freight derivatives right now as we speak," a senior freight derivatives broker, who did not want to be identified, told Reuters.
"It's a major blow for the freight futures market because they were very high profile in the market on the tanker side and were moving into dry freight derivatives," the broker said. The bank said it would continue to trade in the precious metals and emissions markets, and would seek to limit redundancies for its "few dozen" commodities and energy staff.
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