The TRADE 51 | Page 11

UPDATE POST-TRADE PEOPLE MOVES European banks JP Morgan boosts electronic trading downsizing role unit with ex-Deutsche tech heads in client clearing The appointments comes months after the formation Capital pressures have seen some European clearing banks unwinding positions and retreating from the business. A handful of major European banks are significantly reducing their exposures to client clearing of derivatives, as regulatory pressures force banks to rethink the business. According to FCM figures from the US Commodity Futures Trad- ing Commission (CFTC), banks including Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Credit Suisse have dramati- cally reduced the amount of client segregated assets they hold for clearing. Deutsche Bank, which at the beginning of 2014 held over $12.5 billion for its listed derivatives clearing business and was one of the top clearing banks in the US at the time, has seen its client segre- gated assets drop to just over $3.1 billion as of November 2016. “What we have seen is that there been some unwinding of positions. When we look at CFTC statistics…. notably one or two of the European clearing brokers have delever- aged,” says Jamie Gavin, head of OTC clearing for Europe and Asia, Societe Generale. “We think that is due to sensi- tivity over certain LDI strategies where they have been very bal- ance-sheet intensive.” of a new global trading team with a key focus on elec- tronic trading. JP Morgan has poached two of Deutsche Bank’s senior trading technologists, as it looks to further strengthen its electronic trading unit. The US bank has hired David Winig as global head of market data services and electronic trading infrastructure, and Leon Sirota within its fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) technolo- gy team in New York. Sirota was previously Deutsche Bank’s global head of algorithmic trading technology for over six years, before departing the bank in January. Meanwhile, Winig re-joins JP Morgan after serving almost eight years at Deutsche Bank, where he previously served as the CIO of the corporate banking and secu- rities (CB&S) unit’s core trading technology. The appointments come months after David Hudson, JP Mor- gan’s head of markets execution, announced a new global trading team with a key focus on electronic trading. Winig previously served as a managing principal director for Bear Stearns, before it became part of JP Morgan at the height of the financial crisis. Sirota also served as global head of algorithmic trading development at ITG for two years. The loss of its two senior tech- nologists is the latest blow for Deutsche Bank’s US trading team, after its co-head of electronic trading for the Americas, John Cogman, departed last May to join high frequency trading firm Tower Research Capital. Issue 51 TheTradeNews.com 11