Jason Green was named director at BNP Paribas, focused on systematic macro sales following 10 and a half years at Morgan Stanley.  Whilst at Morgan Stanley he most recently served as executive director in electronic FX institutional sales. Before that, Green worked in fixed income derivatives solutions at Barclays Investment Bank. 

Olivia Gassner joined JP Morgan as VP, equity electronic sales trader following a stint at RBC Capital Markets. New York-based Gassner served in the same role at RBC Capital Markets for three years prior to the move. In the past, she worked at Barclays for almost five years, most recently as an associate, equity electronic sales trader. 

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Whilst at Morgan Stanley he most recently served as executive director in electronic FX institutional sales.

Before that, Green worked in fixed income derivatives solutions at Barclays Investment Bank. 

Read more: BNP Paribas macro and credit global co-head departs following fixed income rejig

BNP Paribas declined to comment when approached by The TRADE.

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Oliveira originally joined BNP Baribas as part of its corporate and institutional banking division in 2017 as deputy head of Hispanic, LATAM CIB. Since joining he has served in a number of roles across FX, commodities, local markets and global credit, rising through the ranks to his most recent role as global co-head of global macro and global credit in 2022. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, he served for almost a decade at Credit Suisse as its co-head of Brazil FID.

Luke Holmes, head of equity sales trading, US clients at Kepler Cheuvreux left the firm after five years, as revealed by The TRADE. Holmes joined Kepler in 2019 having previously served in equity sales trading roles at Sanford C. Bernstein and Goldman Sachs. His next role is unconfirmed.

Cameron Beale, head of sales trading, UK clients at Kepler Cheuvreux has also left the firm for pastures new. Prior to joining Kepler in 2019, Beale spent more than 25 years at JP Morgan, serving as equities sales trader and executive director.  

Janus Henderson Investors appointed Francesca Alesi as a junior equity trader, based in London. Alesi joined the asset manager from GSA Capital, where she spent the last two years. Most recently, Alesi served as an execution trader – a position she held for just over a year. Prior to that, she served as an analyst at the firm.

Liquidnet appointed Amanda Lee Volk as trade coverage/execution consultant for its New York desk. As part of the role, Volk will focus on providing primary account coverage for Liquidnet ATS members, which includes institutional, hedge, quant, multi-strategy and index funds. Volk brings 18 years’ experience to the role from Nomura, with particular expertise in the ATS block and algo trading space.

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Francisco Oliveira

Announced internally this week, the bank is set to “create scale” by consolidating its fixed income divisions into one global business line for Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC).

Arne Groes has been appointed as the global head of FICC, effective 1 October.

“In order to create scale across fixed income activities, we have announced the creation of a single Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities (FICC) global business line. This will allow us to offer the most comprehensive and innovative solutions to clients as we continue our strategy to become the number one European markets house globally,” said BNP Paribas in a statement.

“Francisco Oliveira […] decided to pursue new opportunities outside BNP Paribas. Over a 20 year commitment to the bank, he played an instrumental role in driving the success of our Fixed Income business and we wish him all the very best with his future endeavours.”

Oliveira originally joined BNP Baribas as part of its corporate and institutional banking division in 2017 as deputy head of Hispanic, LATAM CIB.

Since joining he has served in a number of roles across FX, commodities, local markets and global credit, rising through the ranks to his most recent role as global co-head of global macro and global credit in 2022.

Prior to joining BNP Paribas, he served for almost a decade at Credit Suisse as its co-head of Brazil FID based in Brazil.

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The deal is set to include an agreement for BNP Paribas’ long term management of a large part of AXA’s assets. It is expected to be signed at the end of 2024 and close in mid-2025, pending relevant regulatory approvals.

The merger will create a mega-manager and leading player in the European sphere with roughly €1.5 trillion in assets under management.

Specifically, the new entity would be a leading player in long term savings assets for insurers and pension funds, BNP Paribas said in its Thursday statement.

“Benefiting from a critical size in public and alternative assets, BNP Paribas would serve its customer base of insurers, pension funds, banking networks and distributors more efficiently,” said Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, director and chief executive of BNP Paribas.

“The strategic partnership entered into with AXA, the cornerstone of this project, confirms the ability of both our groups to join forces. This major project, which would drive our growth over the long-term, would represent a powerful engine of growth for our Group.”

The joint venture is set to play into a much wider theme of consolidation seen across the street in recent years as many firms look to grow inorganically or cope with rising costs via the M&A route.

“Thanks to the quality of its teams, AXA IM is today a leading player, notably in Alternatives in Europe,” said Thomas Buberl, chief executive of AXA.

“By joining forces with BNP Paribas, AXA IM would become a global asset manager with a wider product offering and a mutual objective to further their leading position in responsible investing.”

Consolidation

Most recently we saw ABN AMRO confirm it was set to acquire German private bank, Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe (HAL) from Fosun International in May. The deal is valued at €627 million and is aimed at scaling the firm’s German activities.

In the same month, Amundi and Groupama confirmed they were teaming up to boost trading. The strategic partnership has seen Groupama AM combine its team of traders with Amundi Intermediation to help achieve its ambitions.

The years and months prior have been littered with announcements from all corners of the market announcing joint ventures or new combinations. In April, Tradeweb Markets moved to acquire Institutional Cash Distributors (ICD) for $785 million having entered into a definitive agreement.

In the same month, Kepler Cheuvreux subsidiary Ellipsis Asset Management announced it was set to expand its capabilities in the convertible bond segment through the acquisition of Rothschild & Co’s business.

Panmure Gordon and Liberum confirmed they were set to merge in January to create the UK’s largest independent investment bank, with ex-Barclays executive Rich Ricci stepping into the chief executive role of the combined entity.

Also in January, Impax Asset Management entered into an agreement to acquire the corporate credit assets from fixed income manager Absalon Corporate Credit, part of Formuepleje Group.

Looking further afield to 2023, several major deals were announced in a quick flurry on consolidation at the start of the year.

Among the headliners was news that financial services giant State Street was set to acquire outsourced trading firm CF Global, Deutsche Börse entering into a binding agreement to acquire SimCorp in an all-cash public takeover for $4.3 billion, and Deutsche Bank agreeing to acquire institutional broker Numis in a £410 million deal.

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Bruno Campenon

The agreement expands the existing relationship between the two firms, including execution for cash equity services. With the expansion, Swissquote will be able to execute trades via BNP Paribas and other participating brokers across different markets with a single instruction. Doing so will streamline and automate trade workflow, from execution to settlement. 

In addition, BNP Paribas’ securities services business has been mandated by Swissquote to provide global and local custody services. 

Bruno Campenon, head of the financial institutions and corporates client line, securities services at BNP Paribas, stated: “We are proud to expand our partnership with Swissquote, bringing them the full benefits of our execution-to-custody platform. 

“Our highly integrated services enable enhanced automation and risk mitigation for the benefit of our clients, which is all the more crucial to ease their transition to shortened settlement cycles in a T+1 world.” 

Specifically, Swissquote is leveraging the BNP Paribas cutting-edge Cortex Equities platform, as well as their advanced execution services as it seeks to enhance its service offerings. 

“Through integration with BNP Paribas’ custody solution and their execution-to-custody setup, Swissquote simplifies trade workflows, achieves operational efficiency, and reduces risk for its clients, showcasing its commitment to delivering value and innovation to investors,” explained Manuel Mache, head of business operations at Swissquote.

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The new launch will allow clients to benefit from improved execution performance, be it through connecting directly through low touch electronic services or placing orders through the high touch execution teams, which also takes advantage of the new local infrastructure.

The Cortex Listed platform offers advanced trading tools to clients in addition to integrating with BNP Paribas’ bespoke execution algorithms, connecting to a wide range of global listed derivatives exchanges and accessing liquidity 24/6.

Multi-asset listed futures and options including equities, fixed income, commodities and FX are all supported by the platform.

“The launch of this new co-location solution clearly demonstrates our continued commitment to the listed derivatives execution business, investing in high and low touch services for our clients as a long-term partner,” said Andrew Willis, global head of low touch listed derivatives execution at BNP Paribas. 

“With our extensive market access to global exchanges, full suite of automated solutions and execution algorithms, we are providing clients with the tool kit they need in a dynamic and fast moving market.”

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The two leading US capital markets watchdogs have come down on almost a dozen organisations over recordkeeping failures with their combined penalties totalling nearly $550 million.

The SEC has charged 11 Wall Street firms $289 million for widespread recordkeeping failures, while in a parallel case, the CFTC has issued orders to four bank-affiliated swap dealers and/or futures commission merchants (FCMs), totalling $260 million.

The SEC handed out a range of penalties: $125 million to Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo Clearing Services, and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network; $35 million to BNP Paribas Securities and SG Americas; $25 million to BMO Capital Markets and Mizuho Securities USA; $15 million to Houlihan Lokey Capital; $10 million to Moelis & Company and Wedbush Securities; and $9 million to SMBC Nikko Securities America.

All 11 firms had been found to have been using longstanding “off-channel” communications following an investigation by the SEC.

The SEC specifically highlighted electronic communications and the widespread and longstanding failures by firms and their employees to maintain and preserve these.

Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement underscored the lessons that must be learnt from the action, highlighting that the commission has now brought 30 enforcement actions and fined more than $1.5 billion to date.

“While some broker-dealers and investment advisers have heeded this message, self-reported violations, or improved internal policies and procedures, today’s actions remind us that many still have not. So here are three takeaways for those firms who haven’t yet done so: self-report, cooperate and remediate. If you adopt that playbook, you’ll have a better outcome than if you wait for us to come calling,” he advised.

All firms admitted wrongdoing, confirming the facts set out in the SEC orders and acknowledged their violations of the recordkeeping provisions of the federal securities laws. A statement from the SEC confirmed that improvements have already begun to be implemented in the firm’s respective compliance policies and procedures.

In addition to recordkeeping faults, the CFTC also highlighted supervision failures related to the widespread use of unapproved communication methods.

The regulator has landed BNP, Société Générale and Wells Fargo with $75 million penalties each, while the Bank of Montreal has been handed a lesser $35 million.

Additionally, the CFTC has also confirmed that the settlements also require an admission of wrongdoing from the banks.

Ian McGinley, director of enforcement at CFTC, said: “With today’s actions, the CFTC has now brought enforcement actions against 18 financial institutions, and imposed over $1 billion in penalties, for violations of the CFTC’s recordkeeping and supervision requirements involving the use of unapproved communication methods. 

“The Commission’s message could not be more clear—recordkeeping and supervision requirements are fundamental, and registrants that fail to comply with these core regulatory obligations do so at their own peril.”

The CFTC order found that over a period of years, the firms failed to stop employees – including at the senior level – from communicating using unapproved methods, including via WhatsApp.

In a statement, the CFTC explained that as the written communications were on the whole not maintained and preserved by the firms, they would not have been able to provide them to the CFTC promptly upon request.

Earlier today, Christy Goldsmith Romero, the CFTC Commissioner released a statement in which she strongly backed the ruling and emphasised a zero-tolerance approach: “[…] Wall Street institutions do not get to keep regulators in the dark while enjoying all of the benefits of being a regulated entity in U.S. financial markets.  Those choosing to participate in U.S. financial markets are on notice—The era of evasive communications practices is over.

“The CFTC will hold you accountable. It’s time for Wall Street to stop waiting for an enforcement action before it changes its practices.  Tone at the top must change on Wall Street.  Change can only happen if the banks’ C-suite establishes a culture of compliance over evasion.”

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BNP Paribas saw a 3.3% increase in its overall revenue in the second quarter of 2023 compared to Q2 2022, despite a dip in its corporate and institutional performance and global markets results.

Revenue for the corporate and institutional banking area were down 2.3% overall this quarter compared to Q2 2022, with a noted decrease in fixed income currencies and commodities (FICC) revenues attributed to “the normalisation of the activity in a less buoyant environment, particularly in fixed-income and currency products and commodity derivatives”.

The bank also noted an overall decrease in equity market revenues – citing a “lacklustre environment” during the quarter.

Overall pre-tax income for corporate and institutional banking however was up 4.7% versus Q2 2022.

In global markets revenues were down 11.7% from last year with “the very good performance in credit activities offset by a more normalised level of activity on the rates, foreign-exchange and commodities markets compared to a high second quarter 2022 base,” said the bank. 

Compared to Q2 2022, FICC saw an 18.4% decrease, while equity and prime services saw a fall of 3% – demonstrating better resiliency in the face of the dip in client activity.

Despite these results, the net income for the bank saw an increase of 16.4% quarter on quarter, excluding exceptional items.

Speaking to the H1 performance so far, BNP Paribas noted that the growth had effectively offset the effects of the Bank of the West sale with BMO Financial Group in 2022, completed in February this year.

BNP’s global banking revenue performance was notably strong, with a 17.5% increase in the quarter versus Q2 2022, with transaction banking up 75.6%.

The bank also noted a “very strong increase in the capital markets platform, particularly in the Americas and EMEA”.

“These results are also based on the solidity of our diversified model and our capacity to pursue development in all phases of the economic cycle. With its GTS 2025 strategic plan, the Group continues to develop leading platforms at the service of the European economy, to pursue its technological progress and to support its clients in their transition towards a more sustainable model,” said Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, director and chief executive of BNP Paribas.

The business saw notable movement at the senior level of its workforce during the quarter. Earlier this month, BNP Paribas Securities Services global head of investment analytics and data services, Neil Ryan, left to become head of product marketing and solution positioning at FINBOURNE Technology.

Before that, the bank strengthened its equities unit in London, hiring the Credit Suisse risk arbitrage team – EMEA event driven sales specialist, Susan Stryker Marinello, and arbitrage traders Andy Martin and Simon Scott – according to two people familiar with the matter.

In the same month, BNP Paribas and NatWest announced they were going live with Dynamic Credit from CobaltFX to simplify the allocation of credit for FX transactions between banks. The move was set to help the firms manage credit exposures for their financial institutions.

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He has also held positions as global head corporate FX sales and EMEA regional head corporate solutions group, and head of Americas derivatives solutions and Latin America FX sales, having begun his career at Citi São Paulo in 1989. Figueiredo takes over from interim global head of foreign exchange, Leo Arduini, who was appointed last month. According to the internal memo, Figueiredo is retaining responsibility for FX corporate sales, and will also continue to support the broader corporate sales organisation until Citi announces the new leadership structure of the area.

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) made a new senior hire for its equity trading unit in London, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter. James Lockley will be joining the business in September and will head up the team’s sales trading offering, according to the individuals who spoke to The TRADE on condition of anonymity. Lockley and CIBC both declined to comment. Kepler Cheuvreux did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prior to joining the French firm where he was employed as a sales trader for over five years, Lockley worked as a trader at broker GFI Group. Before this he was a trader at US bank, Jefferies.

BNP Paribas securities services’ global head of investment analytics and data services, Neil Ryan, left the bank to become head of product marketing and solution positioning at Finbourne Technology. Ryan brings more than 25 years of global experience in data strategy, product development, business intelligence, data governance and data architecture. He held senior data and analytics roles at Citi, EY and most recently at BNP Paribas Securities Services. At the latter, Ryan was product domain lead for performance analytics, risk analytics, ESG analytics, regulatory reporting and data-as-a-service; leading a team based across Australia, Singapore, Luxembourg and France. His expertise will help advance Finbourne’s product and solutions communication strategy, with Ryan working closely with the firm’s development teams, as well as with senior stakeholders across the business. 

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