Vincent Hall joined Citi as an equity trader following two years at Citadel where he served in the same role. He returns to Citi after four years, having previously worked at the firm as associate vice president in emerging markets equity trading. Elsewhere in his career, Hall has also worked at BlackRock as an associate.

Edward Tilly is set to take over as chief executive of Clear Street at the end of this year. The announcement comes two months after Tilly’s appointment as president at the firm. He replaces CEO and co-founder Chris Pento. Upon his departure, Pento is set to assume an executive and partner role at White Bay, the family office of co-founder Uriel Cohen. He will remain on the board of directors at Clear Street. Since joining Clear Street Tilly has worked closely with Pento, jointly leading the firm through the next phase of growth.

Jack Boland joined Ilex Capital in a US equity trading and global equity capital markets role. He joins from Citadel where he had been serving for the last five years as an equity trader and senior associate. Prior to joining Citadel in 2019, Boland spent five years at BlackRock as an associate and later a trader and just under a year at HBK Capital Management as a trader before that. Previously in his career, he undertook several banking, capital markets, and portfolio management internships across PwC, KPMG UK, BlackRock, and Jefferies.

Elijah Ibrahim Diallo joined Magellan Capital as a multi-strategy trader, based in the UAE. He most recently served as an investment manager at ADQ and before that spent two and a half years as a senior trader and portfolio manager at Azimut. In his career, Diallo has also worked as an equity trader at Avalon Capital Markets. Previous experience also includes stints at EFG Hermes and Mubasher Financial Services.

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Upon his departure, Pento is set to assume an executive and partner role at White Bay, the family office of co-founder Uriel Cohen. He will remain on the board of directors at Clear Street.

Speaking to his departure, Pento said: “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved at Clear Street […] The blend of tech and finance talent at Clear Street has allowed us to build horizontally scalable technology, disencumbered from decades-old infrastructure, integrated with the best capital markets teams on the street. 

“Our product and service model is second to none, and our progress rolling out new technology solutions like Studio, our all-in-one portfolio management system, and service offerings like equity research and investment banking, has only accelerated.”

Since joining Clear Street Tilly has worked closely with Pento, jointly leading the firm through the next phase of growth.

Tilly resigned as chief executive of Cboe in September 2023, following the conclusion of an investigation – launched in August – that determined he had failed to disclose personal relationships with colleagues. 

Read more: Cboe names new chief executive as Edward Tilly resigns over undisclosed personal relationships 

“What Chris has achieved for Clear Street since the founding in 2018 is extraordinary, and I’m grateful for his vision and commitment to this innovative business,” said Tilly. 

“In a landscape dominated by legacy players, Chris had the vision to combine a cloud-native tech platform with non-bank prime-brokerage and a relentless customer-centric focus. That’s a winning combination that we are repeating and scaling across markets, client types and geographies. We look forward to Chris’ ongoing guidance as he and I work closely together for the rest of the year, and then as he continues his presence on our Board and assumes his new role at White Bay.”

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Chris Pento

The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2024.

Fox River encompasses a comprehensive algorithmic execution solution for US and Canadian equities. 

Chris Pento, chief executive and co-founder of Clear Street, said: “Fox River’s leading algorithmic trading capabilities add another key component to the value chain we offer. Known for their high-performance algos, white-glove service and flexible platform, Fox River has a longstanding and loyal client base, built on proven and respected products and services.

“This transaction further bolsters our suite of products tailored toward quantitatively focused clients.”

Following completion, Fox River is set to be integrated into Clear Street’s existing business. 

Read more: Instinet completes acquisition of FIS algo trading business 

“This transaction provides clear benefits to both firms. It allows Instinet to streamline our existing execution services offering and continue to concentrate our investment efforts on our core Algorithmic platform,” said Gerry Milligan, president and head of the Americas at Instinet.

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Edward Tilly was named president at Clear Street, 10 months after he resigned as chief executive of Cboe. In the role, Tilly is set to work closely with Chris Pento, CEO of Clear Street, jointly leading the firm through the next phase of growth. Tilly resigned as chief executive of Cboe in September 2023 following the conclusion of an investigation – launched in August – that determined he had failed to disclose personal relationships with colleagues. During his time at Cboe, Tilly was a driving force behind Cboe’s acquisition of BATS Global Markets in 2017, as well as overseeing the launch of products including 0DTE options.

Flavio Paparella was named managing director within BTIG’s global emerging markets fixed income group, joining from Seaport Global Holdings where he also served as a MD focused on LATAM fixed income. In the new role, Paparella will be based in New York and is set to focus on Latin American markets, as the firm seeks to expand its presence in the area. He will report directly to Stuart Kasdin and Pablo Melasecca, co-heads of Latin America and EMEA credit emerging markets. Previously in his career, Paparella ran the institutional structured products Latin America desk for RBC Capital Markets. He also previously served as managing director at both American Express Bank International and Deutsche Bank, Argentina.

Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management appointed Regine Wiedmann as head of distribution for the DACH region. Wiedmann brings more than 18 years of experience in asset management and sales in the German-speaking markets. She initially joined Edmond de Rothschild AM in June 2021 as co-head of sales Germany and Austria, later being promoted to head of sales Germany and Austria in January 2022. Before joining Edmond de Rothschild, Wiedmann served as an executive director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, responsible for wholesale clients in Germany. Before that, she co-founded Vicenda Asset Management in Zug, Switzerland. Elsewhere, Wiedmann was head of marketing and key account manager at the investment boutique Tiberius Asset Management, also based in Zug, Switzerland.

NatWest Group named Jonathan Peberdy chief executive of NatWest Markets, following 11 months as deputy CEO. The appointment is subject to regulatory approval. Peberdy has been with the business for 25 years and has previously served as head of capital markets. He succeeds Robert Begbie, chief executive, commercial and institutional. NatWest Markets confirmed that Robert Begbie would assume the role of chief executive permanently back in June 2020, having led the business on an interim basis since December 2019. At the time, his appointment was a key feature of the first major leadership restructure by Alison Rose, the chief executive of RBS.

GLMX appointed David Nicol as head of commercial operations. Nicol was promoted to the role after initially joining GLMX as a consultant in December last year. Previously, Nicol served as chief executive and co-founder of corporate bond trading ecosystem LedgerEdge. Before serving at LedgerEdge, Nicol spent nearly two and a half years at R3, most recently serving as a product manager. This followed a five-year stint at IBM, where he also served as a product manager.

Liquidnet appointed Jeffrey Crane head of international for the Americas, as part of the firm’s continued investment in its cross-border business. Crane brings more than two decades of experience in institutional equity trading to the role. He joins from SageTrader where he most recently served as managing director and head of sales, overseeing new business growth for domestic and international trading. Before that, Crane spent more than 20 years with Instinet where he held various positions, including managing the firm’s cross-border business as head of the international desk in New York.

Honor Woods was appointed equity trader at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, based in London. Woods has previous experience working in the institutional equity trading team at AB Bernstein.

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In the role, Tilly is set to work closely with Chris Pento, CEO of Clear Street, jointly leading the firm through the next phase of growth. 

Edward Tilly

Speaking to the appointment, Pento asserted: “The time is right for us to welcome Ed to the executive team as we continue to super-charge our growth plans and take Clear Street to the next level.”

Tilly resigned as chief executive of Cboe in September 2023 following the conclusion of an investigation – launched in August – that determined he had failed to disclose personal relationships with colleagues.

Read more: Cboe names new chief executive as Edward Tilly resigns over undisclosed personal relationships

Cboe Global Markets appointed Fredric J Tomczyk in his stead, effective immediately. 

The investigation led by the board of directors and an independent counsel concluded that Tilly did not disclose personal relationships with colleagues, violating the company’s standards and values. 

During his time at Cboe, Tilly was a driving force behind Cboe’s acquisition of BATS Global Markets in 2017, as well as overseeing the launch of products including 0DTE options.

Read more: The 20 biggest mergers and acquisitions of the last two decades

Speaking in an announcement, Tilly stated that he is thrilled with the appointment, adding: “Having spent more than thirty years in the financial markets hyper-focused on innovation and accessibility, Clear Street has an exciting opportunity and I am looking forward to working with Chris and his team.”

Other recent appointments from Clear Street include: Atul Pawar, former Goldman Sachs head of US prime, clearing, FCM and counterparty risk, and Jon Daplyn, Morgan Stanley’s former technology head.

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Trading Technologies International (TT) appointed Gavin Miller as its new director of EMEA sales – TT Fixed Income. His move follows almost five years at fixed income aggregation and surveillance technology business, Algomi. Miller is a Bloomberg veteran having spent over 20 years at the company, holding several senior positions, including: global head of sales and account management (global markets electronic trading); global head of fixed income, currencies, commodities electronic sales; and global head fixed income electronic trading sales. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Miller worked as a credit trader at Salomon Smith Barney – now Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

Redburn Atlantic appointed Lisa Christou as head of sales trading, US equities to international. Before taking on this role, Christou served as a US equities sales trader head at Atlantic Equities before its merger with Redburn, which was completed last week. Prior to joining Atlantic Equities, Christou spent six and a half years at Cantor Fitzgerald as a US equity sales trader, following eight and a half years at Wells Fargo in a similar role. Elsewhere in her career, Christou held a securities lending equities position at Citi.

Lily Chia was named the new head of equities and FICC sales at Singapore Exchange (SGX), working across Singapore, ASEAN, Middle East, India, and Australia. In this new position, Chia, who has spent almost two decades at SGX in various roles, will lead sales for equity, equity derivatives and FX derivatives. Most recently, Chia was head of business integration and  portfolio management, technology and prior to this, worked as head of commodities specialists and execution/clearing specialists. Before joining SGX, she spent three years as middle office and credit manager at DBS Vickers Securities, and before that worked as a senior associate working in corporate strategy at SIMEX.

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Clear Street has appointed Christopher Smith as chief executive officer of its futures clearing business.

Smith brings more than 30 years’ experience in the capital markets sector to the role, having worked in various exchanges and regulators, alongside helping develop market and industry standards.

He joins from ED&F Man Capital Markets, a company he founded that provides direct access to global markets across a wide range of asset classes including futures, metals, FX equities and fixed income. Smith built a futures clearing merchant from scratch to become the financial services subsidiary of ED&F Man group.

In his new role, Smith will report to Chris Pento, co-founder and chief executive of Clear Street, overseeing the development and execution of the firm’s futures clearing services.

“We’re confident that Chris is the right person to lead the growth of Clear Street’s futures clearing business,” said Pento.

“With his deep industry expertise and extensive connections, Chris will be an invaluable addition to our leadership bench.”

Last month, Clear Street revealed intentions to enter the futures clearing market with the acquisition of React Consulting Services and its proprietary, cloud-native futures clearing platform, BASIS.

The firm plans to expand into futures fall in line with its goal to become a single-source platform to serve various investor types on a global scale across multiple asset classes.

Read more: Clear Street to acquire clearing platform provider React

“I am delighted to be joining the impressive team at Clear Street, a firm powered by the latest technology, with world-class infrastructure to give its customers the edge when trading across today’s complex markets,” said Smith.  

“Clear Street’s plan to move into futures clearing signals its ambitions to provide a comprehensive offering in capital markets, and I look forward to helping achieve its goals.”

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New York-based independent prime broker Clear Street is set to expand into the futures market – subject to regulatory approval – with the acquisition of software developer, React Consulting Services.

React’s proprietary, cloud-native futures clearing platform, BASIS, will be integrated into Clear Street’s existing platform – which currently encompasses cloud-native clearing, settlement, execution and custody. With this move, Clear Street’s offering will finance US equities, options, fixed income, and futures.

The integration is set to be phased, beginning with connecting the platform to futures exchanges in early 2024.

Sachin Kumar, co-founder and chief technology officer at Clear Street, said the acquisition will accelerate the company’s product development timeline and added: “Integrating BASIS will give our customers seamless access to futures alongside our equity, options, and fixed income offering in one platform.

“[This acquisition] brings us closer to a single platform for every asset class, in every country, and in any currency,” he added.

Ten employees from React, including the business’ co-founders Pat Mayo and Dave Evans will join Clear Street, with Mayo and Evans taking on the roles of managing directors at Clear Street Technology. All new employees will report directly to Kumar.

“The React team shares Clear Street’s vision for a unified prime brokerage platform and believes deeply in the Company’s mission to build modern financial infrastructure for today’s institutions,” said Mayo. 

Last month, Clear Street announced that it was set to launch a new investment banking business named Strategic Advisory Services to offer strategic advisory, transaction and creative capital solutions to emerging growth companies.

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How are client demands of prime brokers shifting?

For hedge funds, access to capital and the ability to shift directions with agility — to create, employ, and scale new strategies — is critical. That edge often comes from a fund’s partners like prime brokers, who can facilitate lending and trading strategy implementation, and offer tools for pulling real insights from the troves of data that are a byproduct of proper market engagement. Partners that see risk in the same way hedge funds do are becoming rarer. With the right alignment and access to technology, many hedge funds will see the coming landscape changes as alpha drivers. Firms that continue to make these investments and leverage the best technologies available will have the edge in 2023 and beyond.

What is the driver behind Clear Street’s new investment banking unit?

The investment banking business will further establish Clear Street in the capital markets space and is another area where we’re excited to add value as a trusted partner. It will complement Clear Street’s prime brokerage platform and be another white-glove touchpoint in the client lifecycle. As we continue to build-out our suite of services to meet our clients’ needs, we remain focused on our mission to become a single-source platform that serves a variety of investor types across multiple asset classes, on a global scale. Upon regulatory approval, the business will provide strategic advisory, transaction, and creative capital solutions to emerging growth companies. 

What challenges come with building a platform for multiple asset classes?

The public US securities industry, which moves trillions of dollars a day, still relies on mainframe technology from the 1980s. These legacy systems are entrenched in manual processes and siloed data, resulting in costly errors and expensive technical debt. For many firms, replacing these antiquated systems would be like removing the engine from a plane mid-air. It’s time-consuming and difficult to execute with fragmented technology.Over the years, firms that rely on this antiquated technology stack have applied a facade of trendy solutions on top of an outdated core. However, this surface-level revamp of the interfaces can rarely hide the state of the underlying systems. These complex legacy environments often consist of a patchwork of systems that integrate poorly and require extensive reconciliations. 

In contrast, Clear Street is building a unified platform using cloud-native, event-driven, and horizontally-scalable technology. From front to back, our system acts as a cohesive whole, consisting of hundreds of microservices that can seamlessly communicate via a library of APIs (application programming interfaces).

This API-first approach lets us seamlessly add new capabilities. We started with clearing, settlement, and custody and subsequently added securities finance, risk management, and trading. We’re rapidly building support for multiple asset classes, geographies, and investor types.

How can shifting away from legacy infrastructure be better tackled?

As consumer technology rapidly advances, traditional operations systems in the capital markets seem even more outdated and limited in their ability to meet these demands. Beyond technology shifts, modernisation programs are particularly crucial when firms go through important changes like substantially growing AUM, merging with another firm, or diversifying into new asset classes, like adding fixed income to an equity fund, or taking on low-liquidity alternatives. 

Likewise, modernisation programs are often needed to keep up with changes in market structure and other regulatory demands, like the SEC’s proposals regarding new investor communication processes, core trading changes, new position reporting demands, and the shortening of the settlement cycle to T+1.

Updating operations requires careful planning, cross-functional teams, and a well-executed strategy to ensure success. Firms making a transition can consider following a process that includes a current state assessment, selection of new tools, integration of tools, streamlining of processes, and teaming. 

Firms should be prepared for potential challenges in the form of cultural resistance, improper planning, legacy systems, and resource constraints. However, the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term discomfort. Increased efficiency, improved transparency, enhanced risk management, and better decision-making makes it worthwhile for organisations looking to stay ahead in today’s evershifting and ultra-competitive capital markets.

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New York-based independent prime broker Clear Street hired a team of investment bankers to build out its new investment banking and advisory offering. John D’Agostini was appointed co-head of investment banking, joining Clear Street from JonesTrading, where served as managing director, investment banking for over 12 years. Earlier in his career he held equity sales and trading positions at Cantor Fitzgerald. His fellow co-head is Nicholas Hemmerly who joined Clear Street from his role as senior managing director, head of investment banking at Bridgeway Capital Partners. Elsewhere in his career, Hemmerly held senior positions at JP Morgan, PwC, Hefferies and JMP Securities.

Clear Street also named Ryan Gerety as managing director, investment banking. Gerety joined from JonesTrading, where he spent 11 years, serving most recently as managing director, equity capital markets. Elsewhere, Wes Hefferman joined Clear Street as executive director, investment banking. Before joining the firm, he served as senior vice president, investment banking at EF Hutton. Prior to that, he served as an analyst at Guggenheim Partners and Maxim Group.

Liquidnet’s co-head of trading for EMEA, James Kirk, has departed for pastures new, The TRADE revealed last week. He departed after spending the last two years as Liquidnet’s co-head of EMEA trading, according to an update on social media. His next role is unconfirmed. Kirk first joined Liquidnet as an equity trader in February 2015 after also previously serving in a similar role at BTIG. He also previously held senior positions at ConvergEx Group as vice president, and RBS as European head of agency portfolio trading.

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