FIA has hired Melissa Brunton as senior vice president of global events, marketing and communications. Brunton joins the FIA team from the Direct Selling Association, where she served as senior vice president of education and meeting services. Brunton assumes many of the responsibilities Emma Davey previously managed. Davey retired at the end of 2024. FIA has also promoted Will Acworth to global head of market intelligence. He was previously senior vice president for publications, data and research.
After more than seven years at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Rostin Behnam will step down from his position as chair on 20 January, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to pick a new leader for the derivatives regulator. Behnam will leave the agency in February. He led the CFTC for four years as it finalised the first federal guidelines for carbon offsets and deepened scrutiny of crypto and event contracts, including those allowing bets on elections. Behnam, who was previously an aide to former Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, joined the CFTC as a commissioner in 2017. He became acting chairman in 2021 and was sworn in a year later.
Michael Barr, the Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision, will step down on 28 February, or earlier if a successor is confirmed. He will continue to serve as a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. In a statement, the Board said it does not intend to take up any major rulemakings until the confirmation of a new vice chair for supervision. Barr has previously pushed for a range of stricter rules on the US's biggest banks, including the Basel III Endgame capital hikes.
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has appointed Gregory Yu as head of markets, and Kevin Rumjahn as head of strategic projects. Yu will join HKEX in March from JP Morgan where he was general manager and head of equities at JP Morgan Securities (China). He also will become a member of the group’s management committee and will report to Bonnie Chan, the group's chief executive officer. Rumjahn, who joined HKEX on 13 January from Nomura Group, will work closely across the operations, group strategy, markets, platform and market structure development divisions. He reports to Vanessa Lau, HKEX’s chief operating officer and group chief financial officer. HKEX has also appointed Paul Chow as chief sustainability officer, a role he will hold alongside his current position as general counsel. He will continue to report to CEO Chan.
Michelle Neal, the head of the markets group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will leave in March to join DLT payment systems developer Fnality International as CEO. The UK-based company, which is backed by 20 financial institutions, recently completed a proof of concept that tested the ability to make margin payments on uncleared derivatives using a digital representation of central bank funds. Neal has served as executive vice president and head of the markets group at the New York Fed since 2022, a role which included providing capital market-related services to the US Treasury as its fiscal service agent, serving as primary issuer of government debt and managing Treasury auctions. Before joining the Fed, Neal held senior positions at large financial institutions in Europe and the US including BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank and Nomura. During her time at Deutsche Bank, she served on FIA's board of directors.
The New York Fed is currently searching for Neal’s permanent replacement. In the interim, Anna Nordstrom, head of domestic and international markets within the markets group, will take her place. Neal is moving to an advisory role to facilitate a smooth transition, the New York Fed said.
David Mears is starting a new position as head of trading business development at the London Metal Exchange. He was previously senior vice president of market structure for LME.
Bitnomial, a US-regulated marketplace for digital assets, has hired Amy McCormick as chief risk officer for its derivatives clearinghouse. She joins the company from OCC, the equity derivatives clearinghouse in Chicago, where she was managing director and head of its market risk and default management teams. Earlier in her career she worked for 12 years at CME Group in various roles related to risk management.
Ralf Prinzler has assumed the position of chief risk officer at European Commodity Clearing. He joined ECC in July 2024 as director, risk management. Before this, he spent 22 years at the German development bank KfW, where he held multiple positions in the field of risk management, most recently as head of risk controlling.
Wells Fargo has promoted Jeff Hall to managing director and head of FCM and prime brokerage operations. Hall has worked in the bank’s futures clearing business for more than 12 years, rising from vice president to head of operations and business manager. He also serves on the board of directors of FIA Tech, the technology provider spun out of FIA in 2021.
The European Securities and Markets Authority has appointed Carlo Comporti, commissioner of the Italian financial regulator, CONSOB, as a member of its management board. He fills the spot vacated by Rodrigo Buenaventura, who left his post as chair of the Spanish financial authority to join the International Organization of Securities Commission (IOSCO) as its secretary general.
ESMA has appointed Giovanni Sabatini as independent industry chair to lead the facilitation of the EU’s migration to T+1 settlement. Sabatini will coordinate the work of the industry, acting as the link between market participants. He brings decades of experience in the securities markets to the role. He has served within the European Economic and Social Committee, IOSCO, the European Banking Federation and the European Central Securities Depositories Association. His appointment is part of the agreement between ESMA, the European Commission and European Central Bank to put in place specific governance to help the industry coordinate the shift to T+1 in the EU by Q4 2027.
Michael Pedroni, a former director of the US Treasury’s Markets Room who also worked at the Investment Company Institute and the Managed Funds Association, has launched Highland Global Advisors in Washington, DC. The consulting firm will focus on strategy and advocacy for financial services and technology companies covering tokenisation, digitalisation and crypto, among other areas. Highland Global Advisors will operate in a strategic alliance with London-headquartered Flint Global, which has a staff of more than 170 based in offices across Europe and Asia.
Sucden Financial, the multi-asset execution, clearing and liquidity provider, has opened a European office headed by Christoph Domisch and Barry Gershon. Sucden Financial Hamburg GmbH, a subsidiary of Sucden Financial Limited, is licensed by Germany's integrated financial regulatory authority, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and is a Category 4 Member of the LME. The Hamburg team also includes Christoph Chopin as an LME metals broker. The team will Initially offer clients in Germany and across the EU access to LME contracts. In the future, the company said that Sucden Financial Hamburg could provide European clients with access to additional commodity derivatives and foreign exchange markets.
