The World First Private Client team is looking to extend its opening hours and is therefore looking for a part time Private Client FX Assistant to work approx 8-14 hours per week. They are likely to do 2-3 evening shifts a week and or 1-2 Saturdays a month. This would be a job share with two other part time contractors.  This is an ideal role for an individual with an interest in foreign exchange and client relationship management to move to one of the most innovative and fastest growing foreign exchange companies in the UK.

Key accountabilities:

The role will be to field and respond to incoming calls and emails, book transactions for clients and perform general admin out of normal working hours. There are a number of clients who wish to transact in the evenings and on a Saturday.

• Answering calls, taking messages, dealing with queries and questions
• Talking new clients through the registration and transaction process
• Buying / selling currencies for clients and in-putting transactions on the system
• Placing orders through an online system
• Assisting clients with the online system and signing them up
• Ensuring client transactions are processed smoothly
• General admin duties

Skills and experience required:

The successful applicant must be numerate, accurate, personable and organised with an excellent telephone manner and great attention to detail. They will need to have a good, natural sales and customer service skills and should be proactive and enthusiastic.  Foreign exchange experience is not necessary as full training is provided.

Remuneration package:

£12.10 an hour.  The successful candidate will work as an independent contractor and be provided with the appropriate consultancy agreement.

There is to be no coalition deal in Greece according to the nation’s politicians and Greece will now head for a second round of elections in mid-June. We’re not sure who believed there would ever be a coalition deal, but someone must have been threatening to do so because EUR took another clobbering when no deal was found.

We know from recent polling that around 70% of Greeks wish to stay in the Eurozone although this seems to be lazy polling. I’m sure they want to stay in the Eurozone but nobody has asked the crucial question; ‘at what cost?’ The promise of no more austerity has been broken to the Greek people; they can have the euro but does the pain match the reward? That’s the question that they should be asking on June 10^th. Needless to say, pressure on global financial markets will only increase in the meantime.

Where this euro bounces back is anybody’s guess, we’ve been looking for a squeeze on the those short the euro for nearly 3 big figures in EURUSD and it has not been forthcoming. We are less than 0.5% away from the lows seen in January before we saw that bounce back following the French sovereign downgrade.

One side effect of this EURUSD slump has been to see GBPUSD through 1.60 in 4 weeks. The relationship behind dollar moves is now back to that “flight to safety” dynamic and further bad news from the Eurozone, or indeed anywhere, will see further flows into the greenback. The magnitude of the GBPUSD move is obviously less than that of the move in EURUSD and hence we are seeing fresh 3.5yr highs in GBPEUR this morning.

Similar pressures are being seen in the bond markets with Spain’s 10yr bond now over 6.5% and Italy’s above 6% both for the first time since December and the first LTRO liquidity operation from the ECB that calmed everybody’s nerves. We are getting close to the levels that the ECB decided to buy Italian debt through its SMP program in order to depress yields; some will be betting that they bite that bullet again in order to give the periphery some breathing space.

Amidst all this, we have the Bank of England’s quarterly inflation report which is set to show us that inflation is likely to remain high and growth low. This comes only a week after the Bank decided to halt the asset purchase program; extraordinary measures to keep the UK economy going. We may find out today that growth may have to take a back seat in the coming months to fighting inflation although if the Bank of England believes that Greece is bound for the abyss then we will see a bumper increase in QE. They start speaking at 10.30.

Before that, in this economic day of woe, we have UK unemployment at 09.30 with the unemployment rate scheduled to increase to 8.4%.

Today is definitely a day for the tin hat.

Latest exchange rates at time of writing

An opportunity to join a growing and dynamic team, with excellent room for development. Using multiple channels, you will assist the marketing team with all marketing campaigns and events. The role will include working on a variety of projects involving PR, communications, advertising, social media and more. It presents a great opportunity for the successful candidate to get broad exposure to all elements of marketing.

We like people that are brimming with ideas, with the energy to make them happen.  You won’t be on your own – you’ll have an enthusiastic team to support you, but you should be eager to roll up your sleeves and get involved.  We are looking for ‘doers’.

Skills and requirements:

• Degree educated
• Must have excellent writing skills
• Social media savvy
• Great time management skills
• The desire to roll up your sleeves and work on your own initiative
• Computer literate – Microsoft Office a must

Salary: £20-22,000 dependent on experience.

Why work for us?

World First is a truly unique place to work.  It is a young dynamic company with a fresh approach to business.  Our motto is ‘People First’. This applies to both our clients and our employees, and has resulted us receiving two stars in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For. We are fiercely proud of what we do and how successful we have been, but we are equally serious about supporting a work-life balance and we try not to take ourselves too seriously.

The organisation has a very ‘flat’ management structure where everyone’s opinion is widely sought and valued. We recognise the importance of career development for all our employees and try to promote internally wherever possible. Ensuring we have a motivated, happy workforce is something we take very seriously and we are proud of our incredibly low staff turnover.

If you think this job might be the right fit for you, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Please send your CV and why you’d like to work for us to recruitment@worldfirst.com

With the end of the Premiership season leaving football fans bereft, focus now turns to the European Championships that start in 3.5weeks. Unfortunately, much like in economic terms, the Germans are the favourites and we’ll be lucky to make it out of the group stages.

Germany’s economic dominance was for all to see this morning as it released the preliminary estimate of its Q1 GDP at a staggering 0.5% compared to analyst estimates of closer to 0.1%. The weaker euro will have helped the country’s export sector with demand from non-EU countries said to be higher on the quarter. This will further exacerbate the fact that a strong Europe is impossible with a strong Germany as it will suck up productivity from the periphery, leaving their economies threadbare.

France also reported this morning and, they too, beat the UK’s -0.2% reading by coming in flat on the quarter. The problem with French growth is that it is mainly being fuelled by consumption which is obviously very susceptible to confidence shocks and, with austerity measures to increase later in the year, is unlikely to kick on for a while. It also makes Francois Hollande’s job of reducing the deficit even more tricky.

The good news from Germany has picked EUR off the lows this morning, although it still remains at depressed levels. GBPEUR is looking to base above 1.25 while EURUSD has traded as low as 1.2814 before recovering to 1.2850.

It was the political aspect that once again hurt the single currency over the Asian session with harsh stances on the Greek situation coming from some European finance ministers. This, alongside the realisation that a coalition is not going to be formed in Greece anytime soon, will keep the onus against the euro but bounce backs on good data, such as the German GDP number, cannot be discounted.

Yesterday’s bond auctions confirmed that the contagion, should Greece exit the euro, is likely to be felt primarily on the Iberian peninsula. Spain auctioned off 12 and 18 month debt with demand lower and yields higher on the fears that they would be next to view a European exit as a viable option. The difference between the good and the bad of the European economy can be summarised as such; Spain now pays twice as much to borrow money for a year as Germany has to pay to borrow for 10 years.

Other GDP measures will come in over the morning, ahead of the Eurozone wide figure due at 09.30 and expected to come in at -0.2%. We also have the latest UK trade balance number at 09.30 which is set to improve slightly.

German economic sentiment is due in the form of the ZEW survey at 10am with a deterioration expected in feeling expected following the past month’s fun and games. We then close out the day with advance Retail Sales from the US which may have slipped following the pull lower in the jobs market of late.

Latest exchange rates at time of writing

Friday’s rumours of a coalition agreement in Greece has turned out to be exactly that; a story with no substance. Parties did meet over the weekend to try and hammer out an agreement surrounding a national unity government but to no avail and the euro has hit the skids once again.

In what has become a game of “I told you so” European central bankers have started to speak openly about the possibility of a country (this means you Athens) leaving the Eurozone. They never would have dreamed of saying so only a couple of months ago, for example, before the Greek debt swap in mid-March but now it is all the rage. Phrases like “amicable divorce” and “if it can be managed” are not phrases to engender confidence. There is still a long way to go however, as we would need to see treaty changes and further backstops to prevent contagion before Greece would be allowed to fall, or be pushed, on to its sword.

There was more election intrigue in Europe courtesy of regional elections in Germany. Angela Merkel’s CDU party took a bit of a kicking and according to the preliminary results will garner the least amount of votes since WW2. It is likely that this will be portrayed as an “anti-austerity” protest although we would view this as incorrect and instead believe that the main reason is frustration over the entire European situation and noises from Berlin that inflation could be allowed to ramp up in country. Needless to say, this further political uncertainty has helped to undermine things into the European day’s open.

China brought a disappointing week of economic data to an end by cutting its banks’ reserve requirement ratios by 50bps (0.5%) on Friday. Following the disastrous trade figures twinned with poor retail sales and industrial production numbers, the cut was the least that the PBoC could do. We expect further easing of this nature to occur throughout the year as growth continues to slow.

Focus will remain on Europe today in the form of bond auctions from France, Germany, Spain and Italy today. It seems like we’re stating the obvious by saying that the recent fears over a Greek exit will manifest in higher borrowing costs for the periphery while this is will be the first French bond auction with Francois Hollande installed as President. The auctions kick off from around 10am BST.

Elsewhere EU industrial production (10am) is likely to show further weakness in the continental manufacturing sector ahead of tomorrow’s lacklustre GDP number.

Latest exchange rates at time of writing

The political merry-go-round in Greece keeps turning with talks of a deal between the PASOK, New Democracy and the Democratic Left parties being bandied around this morning. All would want to renegotiate the terms of the most recent bailout and so, even if a government was formed, significant obstacles are still around.

It is China, however, that has grabbed headlines overnight with its April industrial production figures slowed to 9.3% (est 12.2%) and retail sales only grew by 14.1% (est 15.1%). Combine that with an easing inflation picture and the disastrous trade balance numbers released earlier in the week and the old fears that China is due some form of hard landing – where growth slows dramatically – are freshly stoked. Whether we see authorities in China loosen monetary policy in response to these figures remains a good question.

Asian equities dipped on the news with banking shares particularly hard hit following JP Morgan’s admission of $2bn of trading losses in Q2. The shares fell 6% in post-market trading as it became clear that systems and controls designed to keep this sort of thing from happening had not worked at all.

Positive jobs numbers from the US and the news that something may be afoot in Greece saw some encouragement return to the market. Sterling in particular got close to 1.25 versus the euro yesterday following the Bank of England’s decision to hold off on further asset purchases.

Inflation has remained uncomfortably high in the UK through the past couple of months and the hawks on the MPC will have balanced that higher inflation with the disappointing growth outlook in the UK. It is therefore likely that the persistently sticky inflation picture in the UK will see the Bank revise its CPI estimates higher at its next Quarterly Inflation Report.

We suspect that the minutes, released in a fortnight, will show a readiness to act should the situation deteriorate further (in the UK or Europe) and further communications from the Bank and the MPC members to emphasise the fragility of the UK recovery. We personally believe that the data from the UK will make this a fairly obvious state of affairs as well. For now the MPC is ready to battle the devil they know as opposed to the devil they don’t.

In all the hubbub surrounding Greece it is very easy to forget about other nations within the Eurozone and what impact recent events may have in the coming days. Spain launched a bailout of Bankia 48hrs ago in a bid to prevent it from going under and this now begins the 4th attempt by the Spanish authorities to clean up the industry since the property crash of 08/09. Deficit targets will be missed by the Rajoy administration in both 2012 and 2013 and it looks like the European Commission will ask for additional measures to cut spending in the regional government sector. Pressure on Spanish bond continues however with the 10yr still trading over 6%.

Francois Hollande also takes power in France this weekend and so we now must start thinking about his impact on the anti-austerity movement. Once Greece settles down, this will be the main political story for sure.

Have a good weekend.

Latest exchange rates at time of writing

Generally one would consider talk of exit strategies and bank takeovers to be the makings of a good James Bond movie, but yesterday it was the deeply rooted reality within the Eurozone. Tensions are at an all time high as the Greek stand-off intensified through the course the day.  Talk of a Greek exit really gathered momentum and almost saw the ECB withhold its proposed 5.2 billion bailout package to Athens.

A mid-afternoon market wobble ensued which saw GBPEUR hit 1.2460, levels previously unseen since Oct 2008. European Equities fell and flighty investors flocked into UK and German treasuries. Fearful of widespread panic the German Finance minister was quick to take control reminding the Greeks they cannot have their cake and eat. If they want to stay in the Euro they have to play by the rules.

Political negotiations broke down as Alexis Tsipras failed to rally any anti-bailout support. The mandate now passes to the socialist PASOK party. While it seems likely that Greece will return to the polls, perhaps the recent radical exit plans of the leftist Syriza party may coerce a more right-centre cooperative to emerge. The lesser of two evils perhaps…

Albeit somewhat eclipsed by the events in Greece, Spain was making a racket of its own. The Spanish government nationalised Bankia bank. 4.5bn in loans which had been previously given by the government were turned into shares. The government now has a 45% controlling stake. The IBEX was down 2.77% to a nine year low, yields were up above the 6% mark once again, and estimates for the 30 odd billion Bankia bailout (due to be announced on Friday) were being coined as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ for the Spanish banking bailout.

During the Irish Banking Crisis, we saw the formation of a ‘bad bank’ used to absorb the problem assets from all the respective banks, alleviating the exposure from their balance sheets. This could be a viable option for Spain as it would be a step on the road to de-leveraging and meeting deficit targets.

EURUSD spent the day below its new 1.30 resistance level. Positive trade and jobless claims figures due today could see it drop off further into the low 1.29’s.

The midnight Asian session saw GBPEUR hit 1.2492 as data from China and Australia was released. Australian unemployment reduced to below 5% and we saw AUD climb. Chinese trade saw a better than expected surplus 18.4bn vs 9.8bn expected.

Industrial and Manufacturing data for the UK are out this morning. The BoE meeting will inevitably leave interest rates alone and postpone further QE for the time being.

Latest exchange rates at time of writing

The lack of structured data from the world’s economies meant that yesterday was a day when, once again, European politicians and their views were the main drivers of price action. Unfortunately that leads to a fairly volatile state of affairs with the euro once again in the crosshairs.

The Syriza party that came second in Sunday’s polls in Greece still has 48hrs to form a coalition but looks to be getting nowhere and, as such, another round of elections are now forecasted for June 17^th. The problem is that the Greek government must have met certain budget requirements by June 30^th or further bailout funding will not be forthcoming. It could be as early as 6 weeks from now that Greece has to fall on its sword.

Obviously those who have paid the cash over to Greece in the past are trying to make sure that any new government in Athens does not renege on previous deals. ECB board member Asmussen said that there is “ no alternative for Greece” other than implementing austerity while also saying that he “expects France to implement the fiscal pact unchanged”. That old saying of never assuming springs very readily to mind.

EURUSD has moved below 1.30 and has stayed there for the past 24hrs and hopes are that the 1.30-1.34 range that it has inhabited since December of last year is finally over. Likewise traders will be hoping that GBPEUR can base at levels around 1.2450 and establish a new range between there and 1.30 although that will be a tall order given the still fragile dynamics of the UK economy.

Likewise in GBPUSD, it has been very quiet given the machinations across the channel and we think traders wait on details from tomorrow’s Bank of England and Industrial Production numbers before pushing it one way or tother. It could be dragged lower through the day if EURUSD remains weak of course.

Spain will remain in focus as well today as fears over their banking system continue to rattle round the market. Spanish government yields have continued to track higher alongside Spanish default insurance while banking shares in particular had a rather hairy day yesterday.

The data calendar is once again quiet today.

Our latest Bank of England webinar is due tomorrow at 14.00. Join us for a run-down of sterling’s prospects over the next month as World First’s Chief Economist Jeremy Cook deciphers the impact of the morning’s Bank of England announcement. April was a terrible month, and not just for the weather. The UK is technically back in recession while the European situation continues to deteriorate. Meanwhile GBP comes close to multiyear highs versus the euro. We will answer the question on everyone’s lips: can it last? You can sign up here

Good luck

Latest exchange rates at time of writing

Elections in Europe went as the pollsters expected with Francois Hollande becoming the first French Socialist President in 17 years and the Greek election devolving into a complete bun fight. The Greeks gave us the world democracy and they can do what they like with it but the inability for a government to be elected once again increases the risks that Greece will leave the Eurozone.

In all likelihood, there will be another election in a month’s time as, after only 12hrs into the 72hr permitted negotiations, Samaras, the leader of the New Democracy party that won the most amount of votes informed the President that forming a coalition was impossible. The onus will now fall on the Syriza party to form an anti-austerity coalition although that looks unlikely as well. All this is well and good until we start talking about money. Greece is still expected to deliver deficit reduction targets set down by the EU/IMF/ECB troika and will not receive further bailout funding unless they do so. Without that money, exit from the EU is the only real way to go.

Needless to say, the euro had a poor day yesterday with GBPEUR hitting levels not seen since Oct 2010 and EURUSD trading briefly below the 1.30 mark.

The data calendar is light today and therefore comments from both Greece and France will hold a lot of weight. Francois Hollande made a lot of noise in the campaign about renegotiating the fiscal pact and improving the French economy. His election reminds us a lot of the election of Mariano Rajoy in Spain; lots of promises that were deliberately vague.

Both Jean-Claude Juncker and Angela Merkel said over the weekend that renegotiations were not needed. The longer that the disagreement goes on and Hollande remains quiet on his fiscal policy, the more and more nervous markets will become.

French debt and the cost of insuring that French debt against default did little yesterday with the most movement seen in the Spanish variant. Contagion is still a very real possibility and while the Arab Spring saw the removal of oppressive dictators across the Middle East, this European Spring could be the start of the removal of oppressive austerity programs. Where we go after that however is still very much up for debate.

Latest exchange rates at time of writing

The ECB meeting was the market’s focus yesterday with the single currency initially strengthening as Draghi spoke before falling back once he had left the stage. The ECB President’s tone was a lot more hawkish than the market expected with the euro benefiting from the assertion that further monetary policy weakening was not on the cards anytime soon via extra money for banks or an interest rate cut.

He was quick to emphasise that Q1’s economic indicators were consistent with stabilisation in Europe, it is unfortunate however that figures so far for Q2 have suggested anything but. If the economic data continues along this path, the pressure on the ECB will only increase and we think a form of QE that keeps yields on peripheral bonds below a certain level would be a goer in this circumstance. This would see the ECB continue to buy the bonds of the countries whose yields are over a certain level in order to bring them back down to more manageable levels.

Draghi also pleaded for “perseverance” from Europe; a not entirely well-veiled reminder that Germany and the Bundesbank will not stand for people shirking their austerity responsibilities.

After it was all said and done however, the euro is very much in the same place as it was this time yesterday against the majors with the latest round of event risk coming from the elections in Greece and France this weekend. We have seen some tightening in the tracking polls between Hollande and Sarkozy as we’ve got closer to the election although this always happens and we, and the market, still expect a victory for the socialist candidate Francois Hollande.

We would expect to see people come out of risky positions come the end of trade today ahead of the election with concerns about how the Greek election could hurt the Monday open.

Even so, the market will want to get today’s Non-Farm Payrolls announcement out of the way. Expectations have dropped from around 180k jobs added in April to 160k now following Wednesday’s poor ADP reading. Yesterday’s initial jobless claims may have gone someway to keeping expectations up as we saw a 27k drop in the numner of people claiming jobless benefits. That being said there is the possibility for a serious surprise either way of the 160k consensus with a beat likely to strengthen dollar and vice versa.

As with all “Jobs Fridays” the morning session will probably be quiet although we are due services data from the EU from 8am onwards.

Have a great weekend and remember that Monday is a bank holiday in the UK so the next update will be Tuesday’s.

Latest exchange rates at time of writing