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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The Canadian bank is looking to grow its London equities offering and this new hire forms part of that strategy, said one source, who added that the bank has changed its reporting lines to run the business out of London rather than Toronto, where the financial services firm is headquartered.

The team in London will reportedly consist of three members of staff who will be responsible for trading, sales and growing the equities business.

The UK government said it would move forward with plans to reverse the EU-inherited ban on free research for clients earlier this week, removing unbundling rules which were part of the MiFID II regulations which came into effect in January 2018.

The move comes as part of the government’s efforts to boost the attractiveness of the UK’s financial services sector and is the latest divergence in regulation from the EU following Brexit.

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The initiative, designed to facilitate payment and settlement for institutional markets using blockchain technology, is aiming to transform current post-trade processes.

USC plans to enable Delivery vs. Payment (DvP) in tokenised securities markets, and in the secured funding market, allow instant settlement on a Payment vs. Payment (PvP) basis.

More than a dozen founding shareholders, which include State Street, BNY Mellon and MUFG, have created the company Fnality International to move forward with the project following a series A equity round of £50 million.

According to a statement, Fnality is now aiming to create and deploy a regulated network of distributed Financial Market Infrastructures (dFMIs) to support the global exchange of value transactions. Initially, five currencies are in scope – CAD, EUR, GBP, JPY & USD – with further currencies will likely be added in due course.

Former Deutsche Bank transaction banking head, Rhomaios Ram, will operate as CEO of Fnality.

The other founding shareholders of Fnality include: Banco Santander, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, ING, KBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and UBS. Technology firm Clearmatics will also play a role in the project it initially drew up with UBS four years ago.

“Working with our founding shareholders, we will start the regulatory approval process right away and look forward to connecting to the first business applications as soon as possible,” Ram. “USC will be an enabler for tokenised markets and also offers a significant opportunity to simplify liquidity management using one cash asset for as many settlement needs as possible.”

Fnality said the goal of its earlier stages of the USC project centred on research and development efforts to solve for a more efficient means of international cross border payments in the tomorrow’s world of tokenised wholesale markets. 

As it moves forward seeking regulatory approval the solution will now incorporating legal, regulatory, operational and technical aspects.

Fnality said in a statement that USC envisages being 100% backed by fiat currency held at the respective central bank with convertibility into fiat currency at par guaranteed at all times.

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Kepler Cheuvreux and CIBC first entered into an agreement for CIBC to distribute the broker’s equity research to its Canadian institutional client base in September. The extension will see Kepler Cheuvreux distribute CIBC’s Canadian equity research to its Continental European institutional clients, and CIBC will continue distributing its research to investors in the UK and Ireland. 

Laurent Quirin, Kepler Cheuvreux chairman of the supervisory board, said that since the initial agreement, CIBC has helped Kepler Cheuvreux raise its profile amongst the asset management community in Canada.

“We now look to return the favour by distributing CIBC’s research to our Continental European client base of nearly eight hundred investors. Our research distribution agreement with CIBC is very similar to our partnerships with Piper Jaffray and CIMB, who are also research distribution partners with CIBC,” Quirin commented.  

Kepler Cheuvreux signed a similar agreement with Piper Jaffray which saw its clients in France, Benelux, Germany, Italy, Spain and Finland gain access to Piper Jaffray’s research. Both firms expanded the deal in July, leading to Piper Jaffray distributing Kepler Cheuvreux’s US equity research in Europe and the US.

“Together with our partners, we now offer our European clients coverage of 2,750 stocks globally. Our partnership mentality is reflected in this third research distribution agreement and our five ECM research and distribution agreements with UniCredit, Crédit Agricole CIB, Rabobank, Swedbank and Belfius,” Quirin added.

In June, Atlas Merchant Capital and Edmond de Rothschild Equity Strategies (ERES) both made investments in Kepler Cheuvreux. Atlas, led by Bob Diamond who is the former group CEO of Barclays, now has a 19.7% stake, and ERES, part of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, has an 8% stake in the broker. Both companies joined other investors in Kepler Cheuvreux, including European banks UniCredit, Crédit Agricole CIB, Rabobank, Swedbank and Belfius.

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