Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission CEO Ashley Alder, who had planned to step down in September when his contract expires, will remain in the position for three more years until September 2023. Alder has been CEO of the SFC since October 2011. He is also chairman of the board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and sits on the Financial Stability Board's plenary and its steering committee. “Continuity of leadership at the SFC would significantly boost the confidence of international and local investors about Hong Kong’s financial markets and be tremendously beneficial to financial stability," the Hong Kong government said in a statement.
The Bank for International Settlements has appointed Bénédicte Nolens as head of the BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Hong Kong for a three-year term. The Centre is one of three innovation hubs established by the BIS to support a global network of central bank experts on innovation. Nolens previously was a managing director at SC Ventures, the innovation arm of Standard Chartered Bank. She is also a board member at the Fintech Association of Hong Kong, and a member of the Investment Committee of AngelHub, Hong Kong’s first SFC licensed start-up investment platform. Before Standard Chartered, Nolens worked at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, where she was head of fintech and before that head of risk and strategy.
The European Securities and Markets Authority is looking for a new chairman for its recently established clearinghouse oversight committee. In December ESMA appointed Robert Ophèle, who is the chairman of France's Autorité des Marchés Financiers, as acting chair of the Central Counterparty Supervisory Committee, but in May he stepped down from the role. A spokesperson for ESMA said the board is in the process of appointing another interim chair. The search for a permanent chair was put on hold due to the coronavirus crisis but will be restarted as soon as possible. The CCP Supervisory Committee was borne out of the European Markets Infrastructure Regulation 2.2 refit, which requires that a committee be established to carry out the tasks assigned to ESMA regarding the recognition and direct supervision of third-country CCPs.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has stepped up its surveillance of the U.S. agricultural markets, forming a taskforce to monitor trading conditions and assigning several staffers to strengthen the agency's efforts in this area. CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert said its purpose is to ensure that agricultural futures markets are "functioning properly and without misconduct" and said the agency is focusing in particular on certain contracts such as livestock futures where there have been "wide spreads" between cash and futures prices. The taskforce is headed by David Amato, an economist in the market oversight division with extensive experience in market surveillance, and it comprises staff from the CFTC's market oversight and enforcement divisions. Tarbert also assigned Christa Lachenmayr, a senior economist in the agency's market oversight division, to serve as the official liaison to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a new position created by Tarbert to coordinate their work on agricultural issues. Tarbert also announced the appointment of Darrell Blakey, a former Congressional aide with expertise in agricultural issues, as an associate director in the agency's office of legislative and intergovernmental affairs.
The Council of the EU's Financial Services Committee, a working group composed of high-level representatives of member states and the European Commission dealing with financial services matters, has reappointed Harald Waiglein as its chair for a second two-year term, starting on 14 June. Waiglein is the director general for economic and finance at the Austrian Ministry of Finance.
Wells Fargo recently added two veteran futures industry executives to bolster its derivatives clearing business. Nate Jackson joined Wells Fargo Securities as a director and head of FCM operations. He has extensive futures, options and OTC clearing experience at firms such as Cargill, MF Global, and most recently J.P. Morgan. As part of his move to Wells Fargo, he has relocated to the firm's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Jason Virgilio joined Wells Fargo Securities as a vice president of electronic trading support, based in Chicago. He previously worked at UBS for more than 15 years, most recently as manager of its electronic execution desk in New York focusing on futures and foreign exchange.
R.J. O’Brien Limited, the U.K. affiliate of R.J. O'Brien & Associates, has hired Nathalie Revillion-Castro as chief operating officer, London clearing operations. She joined the firm after 15 years in the listed derivatives business at Société Générale. In her most recent role at the French bank, she was responsible for the redesign of several key business processes and the implementation of a new platform for trade breaks and position management.
R.J. O’Brien Limited also hired Gary Papier, James Hunt and David Cutler to establish a new specialty in soft commodities. The team reports to Renée Laird, the firm's global head of commercial agriculture and OTC markets. Papier and Hunt, who have been appointed senior vice presidents and co-heads of soft commodities, were most recently co-heads of the softs and agricultural commodities desk at BGC Partners. Cutler, who has been appointed vice president, soft commodities, was most recently a softs and agricultural derivatives broker at Sucden Financial.
OSTC, a derivatives trading and education firm, has appointed Peter Lenardos as chief financial officer, effective on 20 July. Lenardos was previously CFO and then CEO of Cinnober Financial Technology, where he oversaw the strategic turnaround and subsequent sale of the Swedish fintech company to Nasdaq for $220 million. Prior to that, he was managing director, global market infrastructure companies and pan-European diversified financials at Royal Bank of Canada’s London office from 2011 to 2018. He has worked as a financial consultant to OSTC since February and will replace Kenny Su, who was CFO on an interim basis from October 2018.
Tradition, the inter-dealer broker, has hired Jeffrey Maron as the global head of product for TraditionData, the division of the company that distributes market data from OTC swaps markets. Maron previously was managing director at IHS Markit, responsible for expanding MarkitSERV through new product development via industry partnerships and acquisitions, investments and spin-offs.
Carlos Martin has joined J.P. Morgan as an executive director in risk management, covering the bank's markets division for several asset classes. He is based in London with a global remit. He previously worked at RBS NatWest Markets where he had been a risk director since 2013. Before that he worked at BNP Paribas for 11 years in trading, technology and risk management.
Genesis Global Technology, a capital markets software firm, has appointed Nick Kolba as global head of platform, with responsibility for delivering the firm’s technology strategy and accelerating client adoption of its low code application platform. He reports to Stephen Murphy, CEO. Kolba previously worked as chief technology officer and chief product officer at OpenFin. Prior to that he was a technology director at Thomson Reuters, where he led the development of the Eikon App Studio. Kolba is also the co-founder and chair of the Fintech Open Source Foundation FDC3 programme, a financial desktop interoperability standard.
