PEOPLE MOVES NEWS UPDATE
The UK ’ s railways pension scheme has insourced its trading operations and appointed a former senior trader from Santander Asset Management as head trader . Tom O ’ Kelly was hired for the top trading position at RPMI Railpen , which has roughly £ 30 billion in assets under management , in February after departing Santander Asset Management in December .
The global head of electronic equities markets at Citi has left the US investment bank after over five years , to start up a consulting firm aimed at advising FinTech entrepreneurs . John Lowrey departed the investment bank in December 2020 to become founder and president of Imbrium Consultants .
Royal London Asset Management has confirmed that its lead fixed income dealer will become head of dealing after three years with the firm . Kevin Flood will oversee the centralised dealing team at Royal London consisting of six traders working across equity and fixed income , covering all asset classes .
Interdealer Broker TP ICAP has promoted the head of its energy and commodities division to head of global markets . Andrew Polydor takes up the new position after 12 years as head of the energy and commodities brokerage . He will be responsible for the global broking division , including rates , FX and money markets , emerging markets , equities , and credit products , in addition to his current responsibilities .
BUY-SIDE
AXA IM rolls out outsourced trading services for smaller firms
A gap in the market created by the squeezing of margins and the need for significant investment in execution and middle-office activities led AXA to offer outsourced trading .
AXA Investment Managers has started offering outsourced trading services to smaller asset managers as it becomes the latest player to enter the space following a supposed increase in demand .
A spokesperson at AXA confirmed the move , citing ongoing pressures on margins that has seen smaller and mid-size fund managers increasingly look to outsource execution and middle-office functionality .
“ Due to the squeezing of margins and the need for significant investment in execution and middle-office activities , we see small or medium-sized players outsourcing these functions to larger players with this critical size ,” said a spokesperson from AXA Investment Managers .
“ AXA IM is one of the important players , we have the critical size and have made the necessary technological investments to enable us to become an aggregator and to recover external mandates on execution and middle-office activities .”
The team of around 70 traders at AXA , with 10 dedicated to derivatives trading , is led by Yannig Loyer , head of trading and securities financing and derivatives .
The investment manager currently executes orders for its own funds and mandates , and other AXA Group companies . Its new outsourcing mandate will offer execution , operations and liquidity management including financing and the optimisation of cash and inventories .
“ Our critical size and our link with the AXA Group make us a first-rate player in most markets with traders present in several countries ,” added the AXA spokesperson .
Loyer took over as head of trading following the departure of AXA IM ’ s former head of trading , Daniel Leon , who left the firm in June last year to join rival HSBC Global Asset Management .
The trend towards outsourced trading has been further fuelled by the global pandemic in recent months , with major banks Northern Trust , State Street and BNP Paribas stating in April that it was one of the most in-demand services from buy-side clients .
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