Steven Sanders

Through this new alliance, HSBC clients will have access to WorldTrader – powered by Interactive Brokers – a new digital investment platform allowing customers in the UAE to trade equities, ETFs, and bonds in 25 markets across 77 exchanges.

Clients can trade via both a mobile app or online platform, with additional markets expected to be added. 

Read more: Interactive Brokers enhances APAC reach with extended Korean derivatives trading hours

Steven Sanders, EVP of marketing and product development at Interactive Brokers, said: “We are pleased that HSBC has chosen Interactive Brokers, a premier provider of white branded solutions for introducing brokers and banks. 

“Our suite of services includes powerful technology and trading tools, competitive pricing, and access to global markets. Institutions worldwide continue to select our platform to streamline their businesses and meet the needs of their clients efficiently.”

The post Interactive Brokers and HSBC collaborate on single platform trading solution appeared first on The TRADE.

Coules has more than 30 years of experience in client-facing sales trading. He previously spent 12 years at Lehman Brothers, also as an equity sales trader 

He joins Appital at a time when the business is experiencing significant growth, reaching $4.0bn of buyside liquidity since the launch of Appital Insights in September 2023.

In an announcement, Brian Guckian, chief business development officer at Appital, asserted: “I am delighted to welcome John to the Appital team at such an exciting time for the business. Since we launched Appital Insights in Q4 2023, Appital has gone from strength to strength […] John’s experience will be invaluable as we continue our global expansion.” 

Appital further explained that Coules’ deep understanding of how equity markets operate was a key factor in the appointment. 

He is set to support the Appital team with “building and deepening buy-side relationships in the UK, Europe and beyond,” The TRADE understands.

Read more: Appital launches new initiative to help buy-side unlock liquidity

Speaking to his appointment, Coules said: “Having worked in sales trading for more than three decades I have seen first-hand how the industry has changed. Today, more than ever, access to hard-to-find liquidity in a market for size, without the risk of information leakage, is a significant challenge.

“Appital’s peer-to-peer price discovery and liquidity-sourcing technology is truly unique and redefines how buy-side firms engage to unlock latent liquidity. I look forward to working with the Appital team to support their international growth ambitions.”

The post Ex-HSBC trader joins Appital in business development role appeared first on The TRADE.

Millennium appointed You Khai Tan as senior trader, based in Singapore. He joined Millennium from UBS, where he spent the last 13 years, based in Hong Kong and Singapore. Most recently, Tan held a global portfolio trading position, which included trading global equities with strategy implementation via algorithms, crossing networks and global portfolio trading desks. Prior to that, Tan held a global markets, APAC cash equities position based in Singapore. Elsewhere in his career, Tan served at Maybank Investment Banking Group in an equity sales trading role.

HSBC appointed Matthew Stanton as managing director, head of equities sales trading for Americas. Stanton joined HSBC from Primary Portal, where he served as a sales consultant. Prior to that, he spent just over seven years at Barclays, most recently serving as managing director, head of cash sales trading, Americas. During his tenure at Barclays, Stanton has also served as head of cash sales trading, EMEA, based in London. Earlier in his career, Stanton spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs in a variety of senior roles based in New York and London. This included equities sales trading positions for both the Americas and EMEA. He initially joined Goldman Sachs as a NYSE floor trader.

Nomura named Hemish Shah head of EMEA flow rates in a bid to strengthen its franchise. Shah has 15 years of industry experience and was most recently head of EGBs, bond derivatives and euro inflation trading at Deutsche Bank. His expertise includes a proven track record of developing trading and risk management strategies. In this new role, he will report to both Richard Volpe, global head of rates, and Nat Tyce, head of global markets EMEA.

US-based block trading start-up OptimX selected a former Virtu buy-side sales specialist to become its new head of institutional sales. Michelle Butler joined OptimX to head up its buy-side business after most recently serving at Virtu for 19 years, managing sales for its POSIT Alert business. Prior to joining Virtu, she spent six years as head of sales and coverage at E-Crossnet – one of Europe’s first peer-to-peer crossing networks.

The post People Moves Monday: SIX Swiss Exchange, Millennium, HSBC and more… appeared first on The TRADE.

Stanton joins HSBC from Primary Portal, where he served as a sales consultant.

Prior to that, he spent just over seven years at Barclays, most recently serving as managing director, head of cash sales trading, Americas.

Elsewhere in his tenure at Barclays, Stanton served as head of cash sales trading, EMEA, based in London.

Earlier in his career, Stanton spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs in a variety of senior roles based in New York and London. This included equities sales trading positions for both the Americas and EMEA.

He initially joined Goldman Sachs as a NYSE floor trader.

Staton’s appointment follows recent departures at Goldman Sachs over the last few months.

According to a memo penned by Goldman chief executive officer David Solomon in January, long standing executive Jim Esposito is set to leave after almost three decades at the institution. Upon his departure, he will take on the role of senior director.

Elsewhere, Ryan O’Connor left Goldman Sachs’ asset management and is set to join ETF provider Global X ETFs as chief executive on 8 April. 

The post Ex-Barclays MD joins HSBC as head of equities sales trading for Americas appeared first on The TRADE.

The move represents the first repo in Hong Kong involving digital bonds.

“Investing in Hong Kong’s first-ever digitally native bonds and transacting repo trades with the bonds as collateral has been a smooth process,” said Bryan Wong, general manager and head of treasury markets division of BEA.

“This repo transaction marks a significant milestone in building liquidity for digital bonds, while reinforcing our bank’s support for the development of Hong Kong dollar capital markets.”

Using HSBC Orion as the digital assets platform, HSBC helped the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) complete a HKD6 billion-equivalent digitally native green bond issuance for the Hong Kong government across four currencies: HKD, CNH USD and EUR.

According to the bank, this was the largest digital bond issuance globally, alongside being the first multi-currency digital bond issuance. The bonds settled on 7 February.

In Hong Kong, the HKMA’s Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU) operates HSBC Orion, which allows digitally native bond issuance and settlement through CMU’s infrastructure – expanding the global investor base via the CMU’s connections to other international central securities depositories, which also helps drive market liquidity for new digital bonds.

“The four digital bonds – recently issued by the Hong Kong government on HSBC Orion as part of the CMU’s infrastructure – have seen unprecedented investor demand, secondary trading, and now repo trading,” said John O’Neill, global head of digital assets strategy at HSBC.

“Digital bonds should be as liquid as conventional bonds, and HSBC is proud to have been part of the first multi-currency digital bond transaction globally to achieve this standard.”

In November last year, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) and HSBC Bank Middle East collaborated to develop digital fixed income securities, with the aim to broaden capital market use cases in the Middle East.

The collaboration leverages ADX’s investment product knowledge and HSBC’s investment banking, capital markets and blockchain capabilities.

The post HSBC and the Bank of East Asia execute first Hong Kong repo trade using digital bonds appeared first on The TRADE.

It is the second entity to go live since the sponsored repo solution’s launch in early October.

Users are set to see significant reduction in settlement costs, as well as streamlined processes and enhanced operational efficiency and scalability.  

John Farrell, Americas head of markets operations at HSBC, said: “Digitising our existing sponsored repo trade flow and seamlessly integrating it into Broadridge’s DLR tech stack empowers us to enhance efficiencies, mitigate risks of transaction failures, and significantly lower settlement costs.

“We are committed to exploring innovative avenues to reduce operational risks, and we believe this platform will be instrumental in achieving our objectives.”

Read more: UBS conducts cross-border intraday repo trade on Broadridge DLT platform

As the DLR platform grows – across the sell- and buy-side – a network effect is being set in motion, encompassing more transaction types and amplifying benefits. 

In the repo sphere, Broadridge’s monthly volume captured $1 trillion dollars.

“This marks another significant milestone in our journey to revolutionise global repo market infrastructure, underscoring the immense value and transformative potential of DLR,” said Horacio Barakat, head of digital innovation at Broadridge. “We are equipping leading financial institutions with the capability to profoundly lower risks and operational expenses, while unlocking enhanced liquidity.”

The post HSBC goes live on Broadridge’s distributed ledger repo platform appeared first on The TRADE.

The collaboration will leverage ADX’s investment product knowledge and HSBC’s investment banking, capital markets and blockchain capabilities.

“We believe that digital assets will grow in significance in the future and ADX intends to be at the forefront of this innovation,” said Abdulla Salem Alnuaimi, chief executive of ADX.

“ADX and HSBC will explore a framework that enables digital assets, such as digital bonds, to be made available on HSBC Orion, the bank’s digital assets platform, and to be listed on ADX.”

Earlier this year, HSBC launched a new artificial intelligence service to enhance the way institutional investors connect to the markets globally.

Named AI Markets, the service uses natural language processing (NLP) to improve institutional engagement with markets including allowing them to generate bespoke analytics and gain access to HSBC’s cross-asset data sets.

“HSBC is digitising at scale by adopting new technologies like blockchain to enable the issuance of digital assets, hold them in custody and make them available for trading,” said Mohamed Al Marzouqi, chief executive, UAE at HSBC. 

“This capability will help accelerate efficiency and drive new and innovative opportunities for investors.”

The post HSBC and Abu Dhadi Securities Exchange partner to develop digital fixed income securities appeared first on The TRADE.

RBC’s co-head of European electronic sales and trading, Bianca Gould, is set to leave the bank after almost three years, as part of streamlining measures. According to sources familiar with the matter, it has been communicated to clients that due to streamlining, certain roles have been eliminated. Gould’s next role is not yet confirmed. Gould joined RBC Capital Markets in October 2020 to co-lead its European low touch sales and trading business alongside Chris Parker, who has been in the role since 2011. She has extensive experience in the algorithmic and electronic sales and trading space, after previously spending 16 years at Redburn where she held various roles within the European equities sales trading team, most recently as head of algorithmic trading.

James Kirk joined independent outsourced trading services provider Tourmaline Partners as managing director. Earlier this month he announced his departure from Liquidnet where he most recently served as co-head of trading for EMEA for two years, having originally joined the business in 2015. Previously, Kirk served as an equity trader at brokerage firm BTIG and has also held senior positions at ConvergEx Group as vice president, and RBS as European head of agency portfolio trading.

CME Group’s fixed income platform BrokerTec appointed Sara Carter as an executive director and global head of repo. Carter joined BrokerTec from Morgan Stanley, where she most recently served as executive director for client financing sales. Elsewhere in her 15-year tenure at Morgan Stanley, Carter held various senior fixed income sales and trading positions, including serving as vice president of fixed income rates sales.  

The post People Moves Monday: Your weekly update appeared first on The TRADE.

Ash Booth joins JP Morgan as applied AI lead for markets operations after spending the last nine years with HSBC in data science roles.

“We wish him all the best in his future endeavours and thank him greatly for his extensive contributions during his nine years with the bank and in particular the impressive leadership on artificial intelligence and machine learning in markets and security services over the past three years,” said Christiane Lindenschmidt, chief digital and data officer at HSBC in an internal memo seen by The TRADE.

JP Morgan confirmed the appointment but declined to comment further.

Booth originally joined HSBC in 2014 as a developer for front office data, working his way up to his most recent role as head of AI for markets and securities services which he served in for four years.

He departs as HSBC is redesigning its AI division. The bank recently integrated its generative artificial intelligence capability and data, analytics and CRM capability for its wholesale bank including global banking and commercial banking, renaming it as the Office of Applied Artificial Intelligence (OAAI).

“This consolidation enhances our artificial intelligence capabilities and aligns our resources for growth and opportunity, generating value at scale,” said HSBC in a statement.

Appointed to lead the OAAI is Edward J Achtner (EJ), reporting to Marc Ellis.

HSBC launched its digital service offering in May, aimed at enhancing the way institutional investors connect to the markets globally. Named AI Markets, the service uses natural language processing (NLP) to enhance institutional interaction with the markets including allowing them to generate bespoke analytics and gain access to HSBC’s cross-asset data sets.

The post HSBC’s head of artificial intelligence for markets departs for JP Morgan appeared first on The TRADE.

At this stage, the CMA report has found that in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, each bank “unlawfully shared competitively sensitive information” on one or more occasions over a four-year period.

Deutsche Bank alerted the CMA to its participation in the activities under the authority’s leniency policy, and Citi subsequently applied for leniency during the investigation. The CMA has confirmed that so long as both continue to cooperate and comply with the leniency conditions and assist with the investigation, Deutsche Bank will not be fined in any outcome, and in the case that Citi is fined, this will be discounted. Citi has also additionally entered into a settlement agreement with the CMA, for further discount in the event of a fine.

HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada have not admitted to any wrongdoing thus far.

The investigation was opened in November 2018 to look into the exchange of sensitive information regarding the UK’s government bonds in one-to-one online chats by the banks between 2009 and 2013.

Specifically, the conversations – which took place in Bloomberg chatrooms – related to gilts and gilt asset swaps, including details on pricing and trading strategies.

According to the findings, the exchange of information was between a “small number” of traders and concerned: the sale of gilts by the UK Debt Management Office via auctions on behalf of HM Treasury; the buying and selling of gilts and gilt asset swaps; and buy-back auctions of gilts by the Bank of England.

Discussing the significance of the banks in question limiting competition by unlawfully exchanging competitively sensitive information, Michael Grenfell, executive director of enforcement at the CMA, said: “This could have denied taxpayers, pension savers and financial institutions the benefits of full competition for these products, including the minimisation of borrowing costs.”

The CMA’s investigation specifically concerns Chapter I prohibition of the Competition Act, 1998. The authority has not confirmed a timeline for future rulings at this stage, and the investigation is ongoing as the CMA awaits representations from the parties in question should they so wish to make them.

If following this, the CMA concludes that any two or more of the banks did indeed engage in anti-competitive activity, an infringement decision will be published which may include fines.

Speaking in an announcement, Grenfell added: “A properly functioning, competitive bond market benefits tens of millions of taxpayers and pension savers as well as being at the heart of the UK’s reputation as a global financial hub. These alleged activities are therefore very serious and warrant the detailed investigation we have undertaken.”

The post CMA report provisionally finds that Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, and Royal Bank of Canada breached competition laws in gilts-related activity appeared first on The TRADE.