Alongside the funding round, M&G Investment will join the board of Global Futures and Options Holdings.

The strategic investment will assist GFO-X with its forthcoming launch and support future innovation in the regulated digital asset sector.

According to GFO-X, its goal is to bring partners along the journey of innovation, step by step, as digital assets deliver more sophisticated institutional grade products. 

“The lack of regulated trading venues is materially hampering the growth of the crypto derivatives trading market,” said Jeremy Punnett, M&G portfolio manager.

“The UK has the potential to become a global hub for crypto asset technology and investment, making London an excellent destination for GFO-X’s new global trading exchange. This investment enables GFO-X to scale its operations as the business is set to benefit from investors shifting their trading from unregulated venues to regulated exchanges.”

In April, GFO-X and LSEG’s LCH SA entered a strategic partnership to introduce a new, segregated central counterparty clearing service named LCH DigitalAssetClear, subject to regulatory approval.

LCH DigitalAssetClear will focus on counterparty credit, risk management, and the settlement needs of the digital asset derivatives market as institutional products develop. 

Read more: LCH SA to launch UK’s first centrally cleared trading venue for digital asset derivatives with GFO-X

“The long-term viability of digital assets and the digitisation of real tangible assets requires careful collaboration between traditional market participants and modern innovators,” said Arnab Sen, chief executive of GFO-X.

“Having a patient long term capital partner such as M&G is crucial as we build the next generation of global financial market infrastructure for digital assets.” 

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To coincide with M&G’s growth ambitions and to nurture its commitment to the market, Berny Lin has been appointed as chairman of the board of directors for M&G Taiwan, while Steven Wang has been appointed general manager.

Lin currently serves as Asia ex-Japan head of distribution for M&G and has more than two decades worth of experience in the asset management industry. Lin will be responsible for strengthening M&G’s wholesale and institutional presence in the region.

Wang, who is based in Taipei, will be responsible for leading and growing M&G’s institutional and wholesale business in Taiwan, alongside leading local teams to build and strengthen relationships with clients and partners.

“We are delighted to have secured the SICE license for Taiwan, which enables us to bring M&G’s global investments perspectives and specialist expertise closer to our clients and allow us to gain a deeper understanding of their specific requirements,” said Neal Brooks, global head of product and distribution at M&G.

Since 2006, M&G has maintained a presence in Asia Pacific and has expended in key Asian markets to complement existing market positions in the UK and Europe.

Having secured a SICE licence, M&G will be able to reinforce its existing client base and build new client relationships in Taiwan.

“Attaining this milestone underscores our ongoing commitment to the region and ambition to expand operations in this part of the world,” said Loretta Ng, head of Asia Pacific at M&G.

“Taiwan is a key market and we are now aligned to provide tailored investment solutions to meet the unique needs of Taiwanese investors. With our expertise and track record, we are well positioned to provide investment excellence.”

Earlier this year, M&G appointed Manabu Fujita as head of M&G Investments Japan, as part of its commitment to the Japanese markets and to help facilitate business growth in the region.

Fujita joined from Schroders Investment Management Japan, where he spent the last 15 years, most recently serving as head of sales.

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Bloomberg appointed Colin Williams in an electronic trading and analytics solutions role. Williams joined from BNY Mellon, where he spent the last six years, most recently serving as an equity trader. Prior to that, he spent six and a half years at State Street Global Markets in a portfolio solutions role. Previously, Williams served as an investment account manager at Northern Trust. Elsewhere in his career, Williams held a pricing analyst role at Financial Times and a junior business development role at Deloitte.

Fixed income investment banking boutique KNG Securities appointed Fernando Ortega as its new head of emerging market sales. He joined KNG Securities from VTB Capital, where he served as global head of fixed income sales over the last 10 years. Prior to that, Ortega worked at Morgan Stanley as head of institutional and onshore sales. Elsewhere in his career, Ortega served as European head of emerging market sales at Santander Corporate and Investment Banking.

Cboe Global Markets appointed Laura Fuson as vice president for futures, overseeing the business’ day-to-day operations alongside identifying areas for growth in product development and distribution, including in the digital asset space. She joined from SG Americas Securities, where she most recently served as director, primes services and clearing, platform sales. Elsewhere, Katherine Kirkpatrick was appointed as chief legal officer of Cboe Digital, overseeing digital asset legal strategy and regulatory initiatives. She joined from Maple Finance, where she served as general counsel. Previously, she was a partner at global law firm King & Spalding, serving as co-chair of both the financial services and fintech, blockchain and cryptocurrency groups.

M&G’s global asset management arm appointed Manabu Fujita as head of M&A Investments Japan. Fujita joined from Schroders Investment Management Japan, where he spent the last 15 years, most recently serving as head of sales. Elsewhere in his tenure, he served as head of institutional sales and business development. Previously in his career, Fujita held positions at Invesco Asset Management and Nippon Life Group in Japan. As part of the role, Fujita will oversee M&G’s expanding operations in Japan, while holding responsibility for the execution of the firm’s strategic direction and the growth of the M&G distribution franchise across institutional, pension and retail businesses in Japan.

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Fujita joins from Schroders Investment Management Japan, where he spent the last 15 years, most recently serving as head of sales. Elsewhere in his tenure, he served as head of institutional sales and business development.

Previously in his career, Fujita held positions at Invesco Asset Management and Nippon Life Group in Japan.

Subject to regulatory confirmation, Fujita’s appointment falls in line with M&G’s Asia-focused expansion strategy and its commitment to the Japanese market, where it currently manages over $6 billion in listed Japanese companies.

As part of the role, Fujita will oversee M&G’s expanding operations in Japan, while holding responsibility for the execution of the firm’s strategic direction and the growth of the M&G distribution franchise across institutional, pension and retail businesses in Japan.

Fujita will report to Loretta Ng, M&G’s head of Asia Pacific.

“We are thrilled to welcome an individual with such extensive experience in Japan, especially at a time when we see Japan as a critical part of our Asia growth strategy and as we continue to witness increasingly compelling and exciting opportunities in the market,” said Ng.

“Manabu Fujita will be a valuable addition to our growing team.”

With a wide range of experience in Japan, Fujita is expected to play a pivotal role in steering M&G‘s growth in the country – an integral part of the broader expansion strategy in Asia.

“M&G is regarded as a global leader across a variety of asset classes, and I look forward to being part of an innovative and impressive team, and contribute to the continued success of the business,” said Fujita.

“I am confident that M&G can provide meaningful investment solutions to our clients under very uncertain market environment.”

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Despite increased adoption of low-touch protocols and algorithmic trading in global fixed income markets, bond trading will still need the human touch for large trades and during times of market stress, according to senior buy-siders.

Making the case to delegates as part of an Oxford-style debate at the Fixed Income Leaders Summit Europe conference in Barcelona, two heads of fixed income dealing acknowledged that bond trading will continue to evolve with technology, but the human trader and human relationships will remain a key part of trading fixed income.

“Bond trading will continue to evolve with more data and as new tools to execute trades are introduced to the market, but my problem is how do I transact a block trade during times of high volatility or in an inefficient market,” said Mike Poole, head of fixed income dealing at Jupiter Asset Management.

“Low-touch and algo-driven trading will not work across the board in fixed income. As market participants, we have the ability and duty to ensure the market evolves in a way that allows a number of trading protocols to flourish, including human trading protocols for large transactions that can be executed in a variety of market conditions. My fear is that reliance on a small number of trading techniques will erode relationships that we have built up over decades. Change for the sake of change does not always equal progress.”

Poole continued that while the human element is important, there must be more efficient processes to evolve those human relationships, not algorithmic trading, because it’s the human trader that gets those blocks done and that’s how risk is cleared. David Walker, head of fixed income dealing at M&G Investments agreed with Poole, adding that as many fixed income divisions are scaling back the trading desk, he has been adding traders that are specialised in certain products to the fixed income trading team.

“I’m upscaling my dealing desk with specialised dealers so that they have time to speak to the street and share ideas with the portfolio manager. Sure, electronic trading is efficient and protocols like portfolio trading are good, but I’ve looked at portfolio trading closely and found that the result was not always as good as when we’ve traded those bonds ourselves… Electronification in fixed income has leveled off, and the evolution is over.”

On the other side of the argument, Brett Olson, head of fixed income execution at BlackRock iShares, and Bart Smith, co-head of the ETF Group at Susquehanna International Group, declared that the trend towards the electronification of fixed income trading will, in fact, continue.

“ETFs have kicked off this process,” Olson said. “Dealers have had to rapidly price and trade baskets of bonds and they are evolving with advancements in technology and platforms in mind to facilitate that shift. Not only do I believe bond trading is evolving more towards low-touch, I know it is.”

Similarly, Smith noted that it’s uncommon to hear asset managers asking how they can get more out of high-touch trading relationships, but market participants are increasingly looking to low-touch trading protocols to facilitate more difficult trades.

“This has already happened,” Smith said. “Regulatory pressures have limited the ability for banks to hold inventory and the buy-side have their own regulatory pressures to contend with. Transparency and best execution lend themselves to increased use of technology and low-touch trading solutions.

“Low-cost and low-touch trading continues to put pressure on areas of the market that are inefficient, and eventually that will happen as we see new market entrants and technological innovation. It’s [high-touch trading] just not economically viable anymore. It will continue to migrate upstream. We love human beings, but the ‘equitisation’ of fixed income has well and truly begun.”

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Formerly the chief executive officer for EMEA and APAC at Columbia Threadneedle. Scrimgeour will succeed Mark Zinkula, who is due to retire in August this year after eight years with LGIM, although a specific date for both has yet to be confirmed.

Scrimgeour joined Columbia Threadneedle in April 2017, after a five-year spell with M&G Global as the firm’s chief risk officer. Prior to that, she held roles with BlackRock, Merrill Lynch and Mercury Asset Management, most focusing on fixed income and alternative investments.

“[Scrimgeour’s] successes at Columbia Threadneedle, M&G and Blackrock clearly demonstrate that she combines a capacity for managing and growing a very substantial international asset management business with a strong focus on creating sustainable and scalable operations,” said Nigel Wilson, CEO of Legal & General.

“Her practical, collegiate and customer-focused approach will further bolster LGIM’s unique culture, leveraging its strong synergies with the broader L&G Group, and building on the outstanding job ‘Zink’ has done since 2011.”

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Speaking at the InvestOps conference in London, a panel discussing how asset managers have coped since the regulation went live across Europe on 3 January revealed that the use technology vendors or RegTech firms is an ongoing discussion among the buy-side.

“RegTech is interesting and provides great opportunity, but it can be difficult to implement and build products as the regulation changes,” said Katy Stevens, global lead for regulations at M&G Investments.

“A lot of new technology providers have no track record or client base because they have sprung up alongside the new regulation, but once the regulation goes live, a lot of buy-side firms are reliant on those vendors. We are yet to see if this will be problematic.”

Kyra Brown, senior regulatory change specialist at Aberdeen Standard Investments, agreed with Stevens but added that regardless of the difficulty, asset management firms have to keep on top of new technologies.  

“It can be really difficult to build a product without absolute regulatory finality or without absolute detail… but we have to always be aware of new products in the market and which technologies our competitors are using,” Brown said.

The panel also agreed that one of the biggest hurdles under MiFID II has been trade and transaction reporting requirements, which have brought about major additional costs for the buy-side.

“Trade and transaction reporting has been a huge operational lift for us in terms of cost and the infrastructure we needed to implement for compliance,” said Darryl Cornelius, head of European regulatory projects at State Street Global Advisors.

Brown also issued a warning about the potential penalties with regards to trade and transaction reporting.  

She added that the substantial increase in the number of reporting fields, alongside the fact that asset managers must report on a line by line basis, means that at some point in the future buy-side firms will be fined for minor reporting errors.  

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Asset management industry veteran Anne Richards will assume responsibility for all operations at Fidelity International by the end of the year, after just over two years’ as CEO at M&G Investments.

Richards’ career in asset management spans 26 years and she held various senior positions at major buy-side firms. She worked with Aberdeen Asset Management for more than 12 years as global chief investment officer after joining the company in 2003, and she has also spent more than two decades in various analyst and portfolio manager positions.

She will report to Fidelity International’s chairman, Abigail Johnson, who commented: “Anne will assume responsibility for Fidelity International at an important time in its near-50 year history.

“Our ambitions to broaden and deepen our relationship with our clients; innovate in product development and solutions design; and to continue to develop our investment platform and workplace investing businesses have never been greater.”

M&G Investments confirmed Richards’ decision to leave and announced several changes to its leadership team ahead of her departure and its demerger from Prudential which was formed in 2017.

Richards will step down as CEO at M&G Investments as of 10 August, with John Foley, CEO of M&G Prudential, set to take on her responsibilities. Prudential UK’s CEO, Clare Bousfield, has also been appointed chief financial officer of M&G Prudential as part of the reshuffle.

“These changes simplify the way we make decisions, improve accountability and align management capabilities with M&G Prudential’s future needs as an independent listed business,” Foley said.

“I would like to thank Anne for her important contribution to M&G during a period of significant change. She leaves the business well positioned, with great performance for clients, strong positive asset flows and profitable growth for shareholders.”

On her new role at Fidelity International, Richards added that she looks forward to join the asset manager as it moves forward into the next stage of its growth plans.

“Fidelity is an admired global brand with the potential to lead the market as individuals recognise the need to take ever-greater control over their financial security,” she said.

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360T will implement its execution management system (EMS) service for FX and money markets, following an extensive selection process according to the German exchange group.

The FX technology provider said the firm’s objective to ensure its EMS meets costs, regulatory and best execution requirements was key to its selection by M&G Investments.

“A changing landscape of regulation is putting more and more pressure on buy-side organisations to be compliant,” said chief executive officer at 360T, Carlo Kölzer.

“With our existing franchise and three years of additional investment in products and people, we believe 2018 will be a watershed year as this underserved section of the FX industry reacts to a transitional regulatory environment.”

Deutsche Börse acquired German FX trading platform 360T for €725 million in 2015, as it sought to become a leading marketplace for multiple asset classes. Its client base consists of corporate and buy-side firms, as well as banks. 

The exchange said last month that despite the majority of daily FX trading volumes currently being executed off-exchange, demand for transparent, electronic, multi-bank trading platforms such as 360T is increasing.

“Our core belief is that our mandate is not just to connect our clients to liquidity sources, but also to achieve a better outcome ultimately for the asset owner, from the implementation of a rigorous policy driven execution process,” head of UK institutional sales at 360T, Andrew Priest, added.

“This belief is not derived from theoretical opinions or analysis, but as a result of working with our clients to implement their goals.”

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