HSBC Global Asset Management has appointed a head of passive fixed income within its investment team, as the bank’s investment arm seeks to strengthen its passive investments business.

Sebastien Faucher was formerly the head of index fixed income responsible for ongoing fund management activities across all index fund strategies, including implementation and client onboarding, at Legal & General Investment Management.

Prior to his time at Legal & General, Faucher was an investment manager for the global fixed income business of State Street Global Advisors.

HSBC said Faucher has taken up  the newly-created role as part of its strategy to provide clients with the most relevant range of products.

Based in London, Faucher will report to global chief investment officer, Xavier Baraton who said the new hire forms part of HSBC’s plans to strengthen its passive investments business.

“The initiative, in which Sebastien will play a key role, is in response to identified client demand. It reflects our commitment to satisfy it with the most relevant and effective range of products and solutions,” Baraton said.

HSBC added it will unveil a number of passive fixed income products as part of its new Undertakings for the Collective Investment of Transferable Securities (UCITS) product range later this year. 

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Ed Wicks, head of equity trading EMEA, Legal & General Investment Management

Throughout his ten-year career, Ed Wicks has worked at major financial institutions building out his experience across the buy- and sell-side. He joined Legal & General Investment Management in 2015 as head of equity trading from BlackRock where he was a trader and responsible for building out trading strategies. Before this, Wicks worked at JP Morgan for more than four years as a Delta 1 trader overseeing various index trading books and derivatives market making. 

Martin Hendry, global equities, fixed income, derivatives and FX trader, Liontrust Asset Management

After six years at Legal and General Investment Management as both a trader and portfolio manager, Martin Hendry made the move to Liontrust Asset Management in 2016. He spent four years on L&G’s equities trading desk before moving to become a transitions portfolio manager. At Liontrust, Hendry was key driver of integrating the fixed income side of the trading desk and has established himself within the small- and mid-cap world of UK equities too. He has previously worked at hedge fund Gruss Asset Management as a Junior Trader and at JP Morgan on the Corporate Actions side of the business.

Liam Stone, equity trader, Lombard Odier Investment Managers

Liam Stone began his career on the buy-side in 2008 as a trader for global equities at Mirae Asset Global Investments. Just over a year after joining the firm, he was promoted to head trader and relocated to New York City where he remained for just over four years. Stone returned to London in 2014 to join real estate investment management firm Heitman as a long/short trader for European equities. Shortly after, he joined Lombard Odier Investment Managers in a similar role where he has been for the past two years.  

Mihir Choksi, senior trader, Louis Capital Markets

Mihir Choksi is currently a senior trader at broker-dealer Louis Capital Markets, active in equity, derivatives, fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities. He began his career in 2014 at State Street as a client relations associate, before joining Convergex as a global equities trader for EMEA and APAC. He then joined Louis Capital Markets in August 2016 where he has been ever since. 

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Jonathan Lee, head of credit trading, Hermes Investment Management

Having first joined Hermes Investment Management in 2011 as a trading intern, Jonathan Lee has truly left his mark on the £30 billion asset manager. Shortly after his internship, Lee took on a permanent role as an assistant portfolio manager, before moving on to the fixed income trading desk as a dealer. He was promoted earlier this year and now heads up credit trading at Hermes.

Craig McLeod, head of fixed income dealing, Investec Asset Management

Craig McLeod began his career with Standard Life Investments in Edinburgh, working as an OTC derivatives analyst for two years, before he swapped roles to become a credit trader in 2008. From there, McLeod spent a year as a quantitative portfolio manager and finally departed Standard Life Investments to relocate to United Arab Emirates. He joined the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as a trader in 2012 before moving back to London in 2016 for a more senior role at another asset management firm. McLeod is now head of fixed income and FX trading at Investec Asset Management.

Joeri Wouters, buy-side dealer, KBC Asset Management

As a senior fixed income dealer at KBC Asset Management, Wouters has built up extensive career expensive throughout his 11 years with the firm. He works on the centralised dealing desk executing bonds, listed and OTC cleared derivatives trades for portfolio managers across various European countries like Poland, Belgium and Czech Republic. Wouters has become a face of the industry, speaking at industry conferences like the Fixed Income Leaders Summit, discussing execution management systems, transaction cost analysis and electronic trading.

Anne-Kirstine Moller, portfolio manager, Legal & General Investment Management

Anne-Kirstine Moller started her career on the sell-side after completing a summer internship in credit derivatives trading at Goldman Sachs in 2006. She joined Goldman Sachs permanently two years later and become an interest rate swaps traders for more than three years. In 2011, Moller joined Legal & General (L&G) investment Management as a Liability Driven Investment (LDI) portfolio manager in active fixed income. She has now been with L&G for more than six years. 

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Legal & General Investment Management’s head of global fixed income distribution has left the asset manager to join a corporate credit specialist firm.

Simon Males will join Muzinich & Co as head of institutional business - a newly created role - overseeing development of the firm’s UK client base and consultant relationships.

Males has extensive experience working on the buy-side having also worked at Pictet Asset Management as head of institutional business for five years.

George Muzinich, chairman and chief executive at Muzinich & Co, explained: “Males shares our strong belief in the importance of nurturing long-term client relationships based on trust and value-added performance.”

The addition to the team at Muzinich & Co comes as part of its plans to expand globally and follows a string of other senior leadership appointments.

Markus Taubert, formerly a head of institutional business at BlackRock, joined Muzinich & Co earlier this year as head of sales for Germany and Austria. 

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Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has poached a senior trader from HSBC Global Asset Management to join its expanding team in Asia.

Danny Kwok has been appointed head of APAC equity trading, reporting to Ed Wicks who is the global head of equity trading.

He departed HSBC earlier this year after six years with the asset manager and was previously an equity derivatives trader at Macquarie group.

LGIM is currently expanding its business in Asia-Pacific in a bid to facilitate local market coverage for the region’s trading and index fund management.

The move will see responsibility for the firm’s equity trading and index fund management transferred to its Hong Kong based team.

LGIM said its presence in Asian markets has grown in recent years, as it looks to become a more global provider of investment services.

“We have developed our trading and fund management capability in Hong Kong, as well as the supporting infrastructure, in order to provide the best solutions for our clients over the long-term,” said Alan Flynn, head of LGIM Asia.

The transfer of trading of Asian equity orders to LGIM Asia was completed in July, with plans to transfer multiple equity index funds to Hong Kong in the fourth quarter this year.

Chad Rakvin, head of global index funds, explained LGIM has won various clients with index, fixed income and multi-asset mandates in Asia since the business established in 2012.

“We believe this change in fund management arrangements is the best solution for the continued, long-term management of the funds in question and will meet the needs of the Asian client segments we have attracted so far,” he added.

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A number of buy-side firms have joined Plato Partnership as partners to work on the group’s initiatives, the prospective dark pool operator has confirmed.

BBVA Asset Management, Legal & General Investment Management, Standard Life Investments, T. Rowe Price, RBC Capital Markets and Rosenblatt Securities are among the 15 firms that have joined the initiative.

Plato Partnership said the participation of the partners will drive the future direction of the project to shape equity market structure in Europe, broaden market structure knowledge and build stronger industry relationships.

Plato co-chair and global head of equity trading at Deutsche Asset Management, Mike Bellaro, explained the news is a ‘milestone’ for Plato.

“We now have the representation and the financial resources to fund significant initiatives that will have a tangible impact on the marketplace.

“One initiative being considered currently is IOIs, an increasingly important issue for market participants, and we expect to provide insight and output on this in the coming months,” he said.

Steven Way, head of equity trading for Europe at Standard Life Investments and new Plato partner, added simplifying market structure and reducing trading costs requires input and insight from the broadest possible range of market participants.

“The Plato Partnership structure not only ensures consideration of the broadest range of perspectives on industry critical issues, but provides a mechanism by which to effect meaningful progress and change,” he said.

The TRADE caught up with the Plato Partnership co-chairs in November to discuss its plans to focus on new initiatives.

Bellaro explained: “We are setting our sights on the future but we are not moving away from Turquoise Plato.

“We will continue to develop this through our Turquoise Plato Expert Group as it’s an important part of Plato Partnership, but there will be new initiatives that we will announce in the coming months that will reflect our intentions to solve other types of market structure challenges.”

For the full interview with Plato Partnership, please click here.

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Standard Life announced £600 million of the £900 million of net inflows in the first half of 2016 were into multi-asset strategies, in its interim report.

Legal & General Group, meanwhile, announced net inflows of £9.6 billion of which £6.7 billion were into multi-asset and LDI (liability driven investment) strategies.

Both life companies have made changes to trading teams in the first half of the year.

This summer, Standard Life promoted derivatives dealer Martin Robertson to head of derivatives trading for Standard Life Investments. It came almost a year after Steven Swann, the previous head of derivatives trading, took over as global head of trading when veteran trader Jim Conway retired.

In June, Legal & General announced that it was seeking to bolster its Treasury team by appointing a mid-senior level dealer to develop rates and hedging strategies.

Earlier in the year L&G hired equities and derivatives trader Gregory Corrigan from Irish fund firm Fideuram Asset Management and moved senior analyst Jonathan Curteis to a quant role in the multi-strategy fixed income team.

Legal & General’s profit after tax stood at £667 million for the half year ending June 2016, up 22% on the £547 million declared at the same point last year.

Standard Life declared a rise in half year profits after tax (IFRS) of £226m, up from the £69 million declared at the same point in 2015.

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