Joe Wald, BMO Capital Markets’ managing director and co-head of electronic trading left the bank, departing after four years in his most recent role, according to an update on his social media. Wald originally joined BMO in 2020 following the bank’s acquisition of Clearpool Group where he had served as chief executive for six years. Prior to founding Clearpool, Wald spent a year and a half at GAIN Capital as an executive vice president. He also previously spent almost five years as a managing director at Knight Capital Group and 13 years as chief executive of EdgeTrade.

BNP Paribas Asset Management appointed Alexandre Aubry as fixed income trader, based in Paris. Aubry previously served as a credit trader at Mizuho and MUFG Securities. Elsewhere in his career Aubry spent nearly eight years at Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Banking (SGCIB), most recently as a credit trader. Elsewhere in his tenure at SGCIB, Aubry served as a sales assistant for both rates and credit derivatives, as well as on the firms’ exotic interbank desk.

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I predict we will see increased flows into international equities and active management coming back into vogue amidst a rise in earnings and macro volatility. As money moves back into international equities the demand and competition for liquidity will increase and so, how we access it will become more of a focus. Traders will need different tools as well as the counterparties to navigate. 

We have seen new entrants into the block space in 2023, and I see further appetite in 2024 as buy-side traders seek safer and larger block liquidity – I foresee “superblock” venues and an increase in capital provision. Lastly, as active management becomes more relevant again, so too the impact a buy-side trader can have on the investment process; gone are the days of execution only dealers. 

Daniel Morris, chief market strategist, BNP Paribas Asset Management 

Volatility has become the new normal, bringing opportunities for active managers, and 2024 is likely to see a continuation of the profound and often unanticipated change in the global economy and financial markets that typified 2023. Central banks are continuing to tighten monetary policy to tame inflation, although the global economy has taken higher rates in its stride and the much-anticipated global recession has yet to materialise, albeit that prices are rising at a significantly less rapid pace than a year earlier. Markets will continue to focus on the outlook for growth and inflation, and the implications for the valuations of those assets that are the most cyclical and/or interest rate sensitive.    

Although tighter financial conditions may negatively impact economic growth and corporate profitability in the shorter term, markets are not losing sight of more positive longer-term influences. The widespread application of artificial intelligence will drive innovation and creative destruction in many areas, including healthcare, education, logistics and mobility, as well as being key to semiconductor demand in the coming years. Nonetheless, amid the optimism around the transformative impact of AI, it will be important to be mindful of risk factors such as ESG concerns, regulation and fluctuating investor sentiment.

Thomas Griffiths, head of product, Cassini   

In 2024, central banks will be closely monitoring inflation trends and considering the effects of possible interest rate changes on both inflation and economic growth as inflation shows signs of subsiding in major economies. The direction of rate adjustments, whether increasing or decreasing, will be a crucial area of global attention. 

In Q3-Q4 of 2023, there was an emphasis on the cost of collateral and the strategies firms use to efficiently utilise their asset portfolios for collateral purposes. This trend highlights how elevated interest rates have compelled companies to rethink their asset management strategies, including how they handle fees paid to third-party managers for collateral processes. These funding challenges have underscored the significance of cost-effective derivative trading and the need for an efficient margin and collateral management throughout the trading lifecycle, a focus expected to persist into 2024.   

Regulatory emphasis on the need for centralised and transparent margin requirements is expected to continue. This will likely encompass mandatory clearing, such as the forthcoming regulation on treasury repos, stress testing of margins as recently advised by the Bank of England, and efforts to optimise margins through arrangements like cross-margining, exemplified by the FICC/CME treasury enhancements.

Mark Rogerson, EMEA head of interest rate products, CME Group 

Between 2019 and 2023, the proportion of risk exchange in over-the-counter European derivatives referencing the euro short-term rate (€STR) has jumped from 6% to 32%. This has been a voluntary adoption, not driven by a regulatory mandate. I think there are multiple drivers of this; importantly the level of familiarity with overnight rates has increased across the globe following transitions away from Libor, and separately many customers want to have the same type of benchmark rate on all their rates products meaning ESTR vs SOFR is now almost universally the first choice for cross currency and forward foreign exchange.

Central bank activity has meant that the granularity provided by overnight rate products is more desirable, while the demand for a rate that is grounded in observable transactions has made ESTR increasingly the choice of participants. For all these reasons, I expect the voluntary adoption of ESTR based products to continue into 2024 and beyond.

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Would you say trading desks are currently approaching recruitment in the best possible way?

No, I think trading desks are not renewing themselves enough. We are all facing an aging population of traders and we are putting ourselves at risk of having to renew our human capital all at once. Furthermore, I think when we are hiring, we have a natural tendency to hire people who are plug and play, who know the markets, the systems, etc. We are not asking ourselves enough the question: What are the skills that will be required for trading in five to ten years’ time? We also need to realise that younger generations will want more job mobility. It is highly unlikely that someone starting his/her career as a trader in 2023 will be looking to trade for the rest of his/her professional career.

How can trading desks improve their approach to recruit the best talent for the future?

The best talent for the future might be beyond “finance” profiles. One of the greatest challenges we have at trading desk is data analysis. We generate and consume lots of data but are not very efficient in what we actually do with this data or how we store it for future use. What do we learn from this data? How do we make it available for consumption in the right format with least effort? Data visualisation techniques will become key for trading. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words! Personally, I think people with gaming experience have great skills, but we are not attracting any yet. Unlike in the US where military profiles are common in the trading floor, we do not usually have this in Europe. It is a pity as they usually are very methodical and can bring many good things to a trading desk. 

What does the future of the trading desk look like?

From a human capital perspective, I think the trading desk will be a steppingstone to do other things later on. Younger generations are constantly looking for challenges, thus we need to accept that we will have greater rotation. As a manager, this is a source of stress as we all like stable teams, so it will be important to balance your generation exposure while becoming more agile at training new joiners. A further point will be to be open to new joiners “recycled” from other jobs and be willing to invest in them. 

From a physical setup perspective, I think the trading desk of the future will have some of its members virtually present. Today we are all doing some home working, but not enough people have installed cameras to be as close when you are WFH as when you are in the office. I think this is a possible evolution.

What do you think will be the biggest themes in trading and execution for 2023? 

This year has already started as one of the most volatiles times in history. Trading is not easy; it is stressful for everyone but at the same time that is exactly why we all decided to trade as a job: We like the thrill of living historic moments. 

From an execution perspective, one of 2023 themes will be the preparation of T+1 in the US and how Europe will adapt until this train catches up all. Also, we will be talking about consolidated tape, but I think this will go on for several years going forward.

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Daniel Morris, chief market strategist, BNP Paribas Asset Management

One can easily think of ways in which the situation could yet worsen: a breakdown in a key financial market due to the rapid rise in interest rates, a cold winter and blackouts in Europe, or a flare-up in geopolitical tensions between the US and China. Europe is facing an energy shock unlike anything the region has seen since the OPEC price increases in the 1970s. Even though gas prices have moderated of late, they are still 10 times higher than the average in 2019. Inflation is in double digits in some countries, consumer sentiment has collapsed, and demand is weakening along with disposable income. Nonetheless, we believe headline inflation has peaked and will return to the ECB’s 2% target in 2024.

Jim Kwiatkowski, CEO, LTX: The capital markets industry experienced a particularly volatile 2H 2022 as investors grappled with a looming recession and peak inflation. This year will be remembered as the year when market participants were forced to adjust to a drastically different environment due to a hawkish approach from the Fed, the war in Ukraine and persistent supply chain issues altering the trading landscape.

The US corporate bond market was not unscathed by these challenges, which will continue to have ripple effects well into 2023. We expect the Fed’s tightening of monetary policy to continue, with the process ending in the first half of 2023 and interest rates and inflation remaining relatively high throughout the year. We expect high rates and recessionary concerns to continue to hold back the new issue market. Amidst these conditions, the availability of secondary market liquidity will be a key challenge that market participants will continue to solve for in 2023. We expect to see electronic bond trading reach record levels with the employment of innovative artificial intelligence (AI) and technology that increase transparency while minimizing information leakage. We also anticipate the further adoption of advanced trading tools for more efficient e-trading of large orders.

Matt McLoughin, head of trading, LionTrust: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” After an interesting covid-filled, couple of years, it is fair to say that 2022 did not disappoint with the number of challenges it brought for the market.   I think that 2023 will continue to be an “interesting” trading environment, but one that will bring new opportunities.  As the guardians of investors’ financial futures, we have a duty to invest responsibly and with that in mind, I see ESG factors remaining front and centre of investors’ minds next year.  I am hopeful that the increase in global interest rates that we have experienced will achieve its aim of controlling inflation and that the cost of living crisis doesn’t last as long as expected.  I am very much looking forward to Ireland winning the Rugby World Cup on the 28th October 2023!

Jason Xavier, head of EMEA ETF capital markets, Franklin Templeton: We expect 2023 to be a bumpy year for financial markets globally. We think it will be a year for playing defence, optimising income, and tactically looking for a weakening dollar to potentially allocate to emerging markets (EM). My main prediction centres around this defensive play. As such, we believe multi-factor smart beta ETFs, especially those focused on quality and income generating strategies, will outperform their relative AUM growth from this year as the decade of “cheap” money and record low interest rates is gone. The by-product of such monetary policy over the last decade has certainly benefited ETFs and index funds and in particular market capitalisation weighted schemes, often heavily overweight growth stocks, was a good “buy and hold” strategy returning solid annualised returns.

However, the new interest rate environment calls for a more tactical approach to asset allocation and equity market exposures. Hence, ETF investors may start looking favourably on alternative weighting schemes such as multi-factor smart beta ETFs, which consider stock fundamentals in addition to just the market capitalisation of a stock. We believe this is a strong growth area next year.

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Since launching in February, Sustainable Trading has expanded membership to 50 firms, representing a wide range of participants across the financial markets trading industry.

The addition of BNP Paribas Asset Management and Belgian investment house Degroof Petercam, increases the geographic breadth of Sustainable Trading’s members.

Other member firms include global banks, exchanges, investment managers, broker dealers and trading technology service providers such as Barclays, Liquidnet, Schroders and State Street.

Sustainable Trading best practices have been developed thanks to the collective efforts of its members, covering themes including trading technology infrastructure, environmental business practices, diversity, equity and inclusion, and improved governance practices.

Earlier this month, these practices, which comprise of 34 best practices with 86 individual elements, were approved for distribution to members.

Sustainable Trading stated that as it develops these best practices, it will also establish and oversee a measurement framework to enable members to extract clear and comparable metrics on progress in their delivery of the practices, to allow continuous ESG improvement.

“As we approach the end of our first year, we are delighted to bring on board two major European firms. BNP Paribas Asset Management and Degroof Petercam join our diverse membership network dedicated to driving industry-wide Environmental, Social and Governance change,” said Duncan Higgins, founder and chief executive of Sustainable Trading.

“We look forward to their unique perspectives and expertise as they engage with our working groups and contribute to our best practices programme.”

Emmanuel Blanc, head of sell-side relationship management at BNP Paribas Asset Management added: “We see Sustainable Trading as an important catalyst of change within the value chain of the asset management industry. Joining this organisation will help us to collectively drive change as well as help us to progress the goals of our Global Sustainability Strategy.”

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How do you think you can build an inclusive and cultural environment using the hybrid working model?

We’ve been working remote and hybrid for almost two years now. We gave traders the ability to work from home by equipping them with all the necessary technology but we also need to have a presence on site just in case we have a VPN problem etc. What we do is really dependent on the team. It’s not the same for a team of eight people than it is for a team of three people. The trading desk in Paris is where we have the largest contingency and some teams are very large so it’s difficult for them all to be in the office on the same day but we try to do that every once in a while. Microsoft Teams has been a great tool. 

We try to have everybody together in the office once in a while and then have regular virtual meetings with people using their cameras. We have also tried to do some informal events. It’s just very simple drinks but it’s something that we wouldn’t be able to do during the pandemic. Every desk has interns that work on a rotational basis. The juniors are on the desk all the time because that’s the only way that they can learn. They’re eager to do this. They’re equipped to work at home if they’re required to but it’s much better for younger people to see and to feel how other people – more trained senior staff – are trading in order to learn the ropes and understand the products. The learning curve is a lot steeper when you’re physically present. There are a lot of projects involved in a trading mission which require from time to time a quieter environment to think or write. These type of tasks are better done from home. Sometimes it is easier to extract yourself and be very productive for a couple of hours on something that would have been impossible being in the office.

Has the hybrid working model posed any challenges around recruitment? How has it impacted the recruitment process?

It has opened the opportunities to look for talent outside of people who are physically based in Paris. The flexibility that we give to traders to work from home has expanded the talent pool. The challenge is that interviewing on Teams is not the same as sitting next to somebody and physically seeing their reactions. You use different body language when sitting face-to-face. I try as much as I can to interview anybody physically that we are onboarding. We haven’t been able to do that 100% of the time and it’s something that I dearly missed when we were at the height of the pandemic. 

We need people who speak French. We’re an international organisation but if you don’t speak French, you can’t really do your job properly. There were a lot of French people living abroad and some of them have come back to France because of the pandemic. It has actually opened up a lot of opportunities for us. 

What will be the most impactful regulatory changes for trading throughout this year?

Regulatory divergence is a major issue as it negatively affects liquidity. It cannot be said any other way. People are frozen by all these regulation changes. If I do this would I be compliant with EU, but noncompliant with Brexit? And how do I comply with the US? On top of that, we have had all the sanctions from the Russia and Ukraine conflict since the end of February which has added another layer of compliance in each country. It takes our attention away from trading. We need to understand each change. It takes time to read, to understand, to digest and to adapt yourself. The risk is that we miss an important regulatory change just because there is too much stuff going on as nobody has time to look at everything. 

I suspect that the most important regulatory changes are the same for everybody. There are some key themes that are particularly important for trading. I think the consolidated tape will have a massive impact in the way we trade and in the way we digest information. Look at the adoption of TRACE for fixed income in the US, it significantly reduced market liquidity. Trading big sizes in the US became almost impossible. This is something we need to take care to avoid in Europe. 

I think CSDR, if it goes through, that also has the possibility to change completely the landscape. The forced buy-ins could mean it would be impossible to short and when you cannot short that means that you can only sell what you have and that means that it’s just a nightmare to trade. They’ve been delayed and I hope that there is some reasoning behind that to ensure we avoid them but we don’t know that it has been totally abandoned. It has only been delayed. Transparency at any cost is not great because it ends up meaning that people will hide. I have the personal view that whenever you restrict too many things, people will always find a way to do it in a diverted way. Obviously, we could expect divergence between EU and UK on transparency but that would be detrimental for everybody. 

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As part of her role, Grant will lead BNPP AM’s global equity team based in London and Paris.

She brings 22 years of experience to BNPP AM, joining from Capital Group, where she most recently served as a portfolio manager within the Capital Solutions Group responsible for global multi-asset solutions.

Prior to that, Grant was Columbia Threadneedle’s EMEA-based head of US equities.

In addition, Grant has held various portfolio management roles at JP Morgan Asset Management, after originally starting her career as an analyst at JP Morgan investment bank.

Based in London, Grant will report to Guy Davies, chief investment officer, fundamental active equities.

In addition to his existing role, Davies has also been appointed as deputy head of investments with immediate effect.

Davies will continue to report to Rob Gambi, BNPP AM’s global head of investments. The two will work closely to lead BNPP AM’s investment platform and execute the firm’s new strategy plans.

“Nadia’s expertise in fundamental stock picking, combined with her knowledge of behavioural finance, proven track record in asset allocation and ability to leverage a wide range of investment talent will strengthen our management team,” said Gambi.

“Guy has a strong commercial focus and has demonstrated excellent leadership in managing change within our Fundamental Active Equities business, including the ability to promote cultural and ethical differences in line with our expectations at BNPP AM. I look forward to working closely with both of them.”

Earlier this month, BNPP AM’s head of quantitative and index management, Isabelle Bourcier, left the firm after almost six years.

Bourcier originally joined BNPP AM in 2016 as global head of ETF and index solutions, before being promoted to head of quantitative and index a year later.

She is yet to be replaced, but Denis Panel, head of multi-asset and quantitative solutions has taken on her role on an interim basis.

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BNP Paribas Asset Management has appointed its deputy chief executive and global head of client group, Sandro Pierri, to take the reigns as its next chief executive officer on 1 July.

He replaces Frederic Janbon, who is leaving the firm to pursue another opportunity, joined BNP Paribas in 1988, most recently leading the French group’s asset management arm for the last six years.

“I would like to sincerely thank Frederic Janbon for his overall contribution to the BNP Paribas Group, in which he spent most of his professional career,” said Jean-Laurent Bonnafe, chief executive officer of BNPP Group.

Pierri has spent the last four years as global head of client group at BNP Paribas Asset Management after he was appointed deputy chief executive in January this year.

Previously in his career, he also worked at Pixel Investment Management as CEO for less than a year and at ING Investment Management for nearly a decade, notably as CEO of the firm’s division in Italy.

Following ING’s acquisition by Unicredit, he went on to spend over a decade at its asset management arm, Pioneer Investments, before leaving the firm in 2015 after three years as chief executive. 

“The appointment of Sandro Pierri, who has more than 30 years of experience in the asset management industry and has been deputy CEO for BNP Paribas Asset Management since 1 January 2021, demonstrates the capacity of our asset management business to organise a seamless succession plan which will ensure consistency with the strategy developed by Frederic Janbon,” said Renaud Dumora, deputy COO of BNP Paribas, whom Pierri will report to.

“Sandro has transformed BNP Paribas Asset Management’s Global Client Group into a client centric distribution platform to support the growth strategy of the business. This has proven successful with positive results in 2020, despite the impact of the pandemic.”

This is the second senior appointment to be made by BNP Paribas Asset Management in the last few months after Inés de Trémiolles was appointed global head of trading in March. 

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BNP Paribas Asset Management has appointed a BNP Paribas executive with 20 years’ experience, Inés de Trémiolles, to become its next global head of trading.

De Trémiolles joins BNP Paribas Asset Management as global head of trading within its global trading function (GTF). 

In the role, she will be responsible for overseeing the asset manager’s three trading hubs in Paris, Hong Kong and its US offices in New York and Boston, and also developing its automated trading capabilities.

She has spent the last 20 years at BNP Paribas, most recently as global head of credit trading desk analysts for the last two and a half years. 

De Trémiolles joined the bank in 2000 as an emerging markets fixed income sales trader, going on to hold roles within fixed income sales, trading, and primary markets, in both Paris and London. 

Prior to joining BNP Paribas, she also held roles at Lehman Brothers in New York and London, and Citi in Madrid.

“I have every confidence that Inés will deliver the best possible trading performance within a robust risk control framework in an environment in which continued automation is causing global markets to become faster and more interconnected,” said Sophie Luqiez, head of global trading function at BNP Paribas Asset Management. 

The is the second of two major appointments made by BNP Paribas Asset Management in the last year. In December, the asset manager appointed a new head of Latin America, Luiz Sorge, the former CEO of BNP Paribas Asset Management Brazil, as it looked to grow its presence in the region.

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Sophie Lugiez, a 25-year BNP Paribas veteran, assumed the role of head of global trading function at BNP Paribas Asset Management on 12 May, overseeing all trading, foreign exchange hedging, cash management and sell-side relationships.

Lugiez has been working at BNP Paribas since 1995 in various roles within legal, wealth management and securities services. In 2014, she took on the role of chief operating officer and then deputy CEO of BNP Paribas dealing services. Lugiez was also actively involved in establishing the global trading function at BNP Paribas Asset Management, and led various projects on issues such as Brexit readiness and the automation of trading.  

“The changing regulatory environment and technological advancement have transformed the buy-side dealing function in recent years and Sophie’s broad experience of these areas means that she is ideally suited to managing and developing BNPP AM’s high-quality dealing platform,” said BNP Paribas Asset Management’s global head of investments, Rob Gambi.

Lugiez replaces Philippe Boulenguiez who previously led the asset manager’s trading activities, following his promotion to global chief operating officer at the firm. Boulenguiez was previously global head of BNP Paribas dealing services, and chief operating officer of the bank’s institutional business, and has been with BNP Paribas Asset Management since 2005.

“Philippe has more than 20 years of well diversified experience in asset management. This experience, combined with his managerial expertise, makes him ideally suited to this role, and his contribution will be essential to the implementation of our development plan,” Frédéric Janbon, CEO of BNP Paribas Asset Management, commented upon Boulenguiez’s appointment last month.  

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