Futures broker R.J. O’Brien has hired a five-person metals team in London co-led by Bradley Marchant and Steven Bingley. The team will provide institutional clients globally with trade execution and clearing services in base, precious and non-ferrous metals. Marchant was previously co-head of the base and non-ferrous metals desk at BGC Partners, which he joined in 2013 after a career as a metals trader at firms including Société Générale, Investec and AIG International. Bingley, who joined BGC as co-head of the base and non-ferrous metals desk in 2014, previously worked in the metals teams at ICAP, Dresdner Bank, Bear Stearns and Carr Futures. The other members of the new metals team are Joe Gregory, Martin Trott and Grant Gibbons.
Intercontinental Exchange has named Caterina Caramaschi as head of a combined portfolio covering ICE’s global interest rates and equity derivatives futures and options. Caramaschi, who becomes vice president, financial derivatives, has worked at ICE and formerly LIFFE, for 21 years. She has held the role of ICE’s global head of equity derivatives since December 2020. In her new role, Caramaschi becomes responsible for ICE’s interest rate futures markets, which include the benchmark Euribor, UK Gilt, SONIA, SARON, and ICE’s mortgage rate lock futures, as well as the global equity derivatives complex.
CME Group has appointed two new global heads for its equity index and cryptocurrency businesses. Paul Woolman has been named as global head of equity index products while Giovanni Vicioso has been appointed global head of cryptocurrency products. Woolman and Vicioso report to Tim McCourt, who previously led both business lines and was recently named to the CME Group management team as global head of equity and FX products. Woolman joined CME in 2016 as senior director, head of EMEA equity products and alternative investments. Vicioso joined CME Group in 2012 as senior director of equity products, in which he also began his involvement in the CME cryptocurrency business.
Four members have joined FIA's board and regional advisory committees. Emma West, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's global head of OTC clearing, FXPB and FIPB product and head of European business for futures and options and OTC clearing services, has joined FIA's board of directors. Raj Daswani, Citi's APAC head of futures and clearing, has joined FIA's Asia Advisory Board. Sharon Shi, group chief executive officer, G.H. Financials, and Maylis Dubarry, global co-head of prime services products at Société Générale, have joined FIA's Europe Advisory Board.
The Bank of England has appointed Sasha Mills as executive director for financial market infrastructure, succeeding Christina Segal-Knowles, who stepped down from the role in September. Mills is responsible for the supervision of CCPs, central securities depositories and payment systems and oversees the development of international policy on the role of margin. Previously she was the executive director of the resolution directorate, and before that was a director in the Bank’s prudential policy directorate.
Christina Segal-Knowles, the former executive director for financial market infrastructure at the Bank of England, has rejoined the White House as senior director for international economics and competitiveness at the National Security Council. She succeeds Peter Harrell. Segal-Knowles previously served as special assistant to the president for international economics during Barack Obama’s administration before joining the Bank of England in 2017.
Andrew Griffith MP has been appointed financial secretary to the Treasury and City minister by British prime minister Liz Truss. He succeeds John Glen, who resigned in July due to “a complete lack of confidence” in former prime minister, Boris Johnson. Griffith, a former Sky chief financial officer and Rothschild investment banker, will lead on reforms making their way through parliament in the Financial Services and Markets Bill, and on oversight of the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, as well as the City's competitiveness post-Brexit. Griffith was previously Johnson’s policy chief from February until July this year. Before being elected to parliament in 2019, Griffith worked at Rothschild & Co and PwC, before joining Sky, a UK media company, as a financial analyst. He was appointed Sky’s CFO in 2008 and was also appointed the company’s chief operating officer in 2016.
Morgan Downey has joined Mizuho Americas as executive director in its futures division, focusing on sales to expand the firm's footprint with financial institutions and investment managers. His role will also be geared toward growing and expanding its electronic trading offering and algo trading strategy to support Mizuho’s growth as a top 10 FCM in segregated funds. He is based in New York and reports to John Murphy, head of futures. Downey previously worked at Société Générale as head of exchange-traded derivatives in the Americas.
ABN AMRO Clearing Bank has appointed Nancy Stern as general counsel and chief of staff in Chicago. Stern was most recently CEO of Allston Holdings. Before her promotion to CEO in 2020, she served as Allston’s chief operating officer and general counsel. She joined Allston in 2013 after serving as an attorney and partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman and previously Gardner Carton & Douglas, now part of Faegre Baker Daniels.
Eurex has hired Kris Hopkins in Singapore to develop its equity and index derivatives business in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Hopkins was previously head of capital markets, Asia Pacific at SBI Digital Markets. Prior to that, he was head of e-trading sales for Asia at Citi in Singapore. Hopkins has also worked as head of client derivatives execution for South Asia at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and worked for seven years at JP Morgan as a derivatives trader.
Credit Suisse has appointed Jing Wang as chief executive officer of Credit Suisse Securities (China), its Chinese securities joint venture in which it currently has a 51% stake. In September, the bank reached an agreement to buy the remaining 49% stake owned by its local partner Founder Securities, reaffirming its commitment to the world’s second-biggest economy. Wang recently worked as the bank's head of China onshore wealth management and succeeds former CEO Tim Tu, who has moved to become co-head of the financing group for APAC at Credit Suisse.
Solomon Barnett has joined proprietary trading firm and market maker Optiver as head of US trading operations, based in Chicago. He previously spent 12 years at Citadel Securities where he was part of the trading desk management team and was head of systemic equities Americas risk trading.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has appointed Richard Ostrander as general counsel and head of the legal group. In this role, he will also be a member of the Bank’s executive committee and will serve as deputy general counsel of the Federal Open Market Committee. Ostrander will join the New York Fed in November. He is currently a managing director in Legal & Compliance at BlackRock. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2011, Ostrander was a managing director responsible for global legal coverage of Morgan Stanley’s fixed income division.
Law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher has appointed digital asset attorney Kari Larsen as a partner to co-lead its digital-focused practice in New York. Larsen will co-head the Digital Works unit with three other lawyers: Aliceson (Kristy) Littman, who joined the firm in September from the US Securities and Exchange Commission where she was chief of its crypto assets and cyber unit; Justin Browder, who has worked as a partner in Willkie’s asset management department for the last few years; and J. Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the CFTC. Larsen joins from Perkins Coie, where she co-led the blockchain, digital asset and custody group within its fintech practice. She began her career as an international operations counsel for the enforcement division of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, advising on cross-border policy matters.
Brett Harrison, FTX.US president since May 2021, has announced he is stepping down from his post and moving into an advisory role at the company. Harrison said in a tweet that he would be "remaining in the industry with the goal of removing technological barriers to full participation in and maturation of global crypto markets, both centralized and decentralized." Harrison joined FTX in May 2021 after spending close to two years at Citadel Securities.
Digital asset custodian Komainu has appointed Nicolas Bertrand as its new chief executive officer. Bertrand was previously head of derivatives and commodities at Borsa Italiana, the now Euronext-owned trading venue, until December 2021. He also spent a decade as head of equities and derivatives at the London Stock Exchange Group, in the period after the merger between Borsa Italiana and the London Stock Exchange. Founded in 2018 as a joint venture between Nomura, Ledger and CoinShares, Komainu is a European-regulated institutional-grade digital asset custody services provider. The London Metal Exchange’s chief executive Matthew Chamberlain had been set to take the CEO role at the end of April but decided to remain at LME following the fallout from the suspension of its nickel market in March.
Piyapan Kruemai has joined trading firm DRW in Singapore as business manager, Asia Pacific. Kruemai joins DRW from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing where she was vice president, global client development. Prior to that, she spent five years at Eurex in Singapore as vice president, sales in Asia and the Middle East. Kruemai has also worked at Trading Technologies and MF Global (Singapore).
UBS Securities has appointed Janet McCormick as head of FCM regulatory compliance. McCormick joins from Mizuho Securities, where she served as managing director and FCM chief compliance officer.
Digital assets prime brokerage Floating Point Group has hired Peter Eliades, who previously headed electronic trading sales for Wells Fargo, to oversee business development in the US and the Asia Pacific. Eliades was a vice president at Lehman Brothers in 2001 before becoming a managing director at Bear Stearns & Co. four years later. He went on to work for JP Morgan as head of Americas trading before joining Wells Fargo.
Cryptoasset exchange Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell plans to step down as CEO and will be replaced by chief operating officer Dave Ripley. Powell will remain as Kraken's board chair and continue to work with the exchange on product development.
Nomura Holdings has appointed Christopher Willcox as head of its wholesale division and executive officer. Willcox joined Nomura in 2021 as CEO and president of Nomura Holding America, Nomura Securities International and Nomura Global Financial Products. Satoshi Kawamura will succeed Willcox as head of Nomura Holding America and Nomura Securities International. Vincent Primiano will also assume senior leadership roles in those divisions. Willcox replaces Steven Ashley, who was appointed chairman of Laser Digital Holdings, Nomura's new digital asset company. Jez Mohideen, who currently oversees the crypto business, will become the chief executive of Laser Digital.
Clifford Chance has hired derivatives and structured finance partner Darren Littlejohn to join its US structured finance team. Littlejohn joins from Fried Frank, where he was a corporate partner and a member of the firm's derivatives and asset management practices.
