People moves: TSB chief exec quits, Eurex loses two execs, new cyber chief at Commerzbank, and more

Latest job changes across the industry

Paul Pester has quit embattled TSB

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Paul Pester, chief executive of TSB, has quit the bank. His departure follows a series of IT problems that crippled TSB’s systems starting in April. They included a botched migration to a new system, which resulted in many customers being denied access to their online banking. TSB has hired law firm Slaughter and May to undertake a review of the IT failures and intends to publish the review once complete.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, told a parliamentary hearing the resignation is proof of the effectiveness of the UK’s Senior Managers Regime, which places direct accountability on senior executives for what Carney described as “operational, financial or conduct failures”.

Pester joined Lloyds Banking Group, TSB’s then-parent, in 2010 to lead the de-merger of TSB. It was completed in 2013 and Pester became chief executive of the new entity.

A further senior manager, Jonathan Hall, has also left TSB. Hall was in charge of compensating customers for the IT meltdown.

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Eurex Clearing’s chief risk officer (CRO), Thomas Laux, is set to leave the firm. The move was announced by the firm’s chief executive at a recent townhall meeting. Laux will work with a new CRO until at least spring 2019.

Laux has also been a member of Eurex Clearing’s executive board since 2013. Before joining the central counterparty in 2006, he was at Deutsche Börse – which owns Eurex Group – working on the exchange’s clearing system, among other strategic projects.     

Risk.net understands Laux’s departure is unrelated to a recently announced organisational restructure at Eurex Exchange, part of Eurex Group. In a statement mentioning the reorganisation, the bourse said Mehtap Dinc, a veteran member of the Eurex Exchange board, has decided to resign.

Dinc, who is also head of derivatives product development at Deutsche Börse, led the December 2016 launch of total return futures on the Euro Stoxx 50, which helped Eurex win the exchange of the year title in Risk Awards 2017.

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Citi has made two senior appointments in its futures, clearing and collateral (FCC) business.

Gordon Ball has joined as Europe, Middle East and Africa head of electronic execution and algorithmic trading. His priorities include growing the electronic execution franchise and helping develop the FCC’s low-latency strategy. Ball is based in London and reports to Sabrina Wilson, global head of electronic and algorithmic trading and Emea head of FCC. He previously spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs in roles that included electronic execution strategy.

Joseph Michniowski has been named Asia-Pacific head of electronic execution and algorithmic trading. Based in Hong Kong, he reports to Wilson and Ian Nissen, Asia-Pacific head of FCC. Michniowski joined Citi in 2015 and most recently led its equities quant trading analytics team globally. 

Antoine de Saint Vaulry

Separately, Citi has recruited Antoine de Saint Vaulry as Asia-Pacific head of Delta One ETF Trading. Based in Hong Kong, Vaulry will report to Sebastien Mailleux, head of prime finance and Delta One for Asia-Pacific. He previously worked at Commerzbank, most recently as head of ETF and flow trading for Asia.

The bank has also hired Julie Kerr as Asia-Pacific head of custody and fund services. She reports to David Russell, head of markets and securities services for Hong Kong, and to Sanjiv Sawhney, global head of custody and fund services. Kerr joins from EY, where she was a partner in the financial services, wealth and asset management division for Asia-Pacific.

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Commerzbank has named Thomas Kartanowicz as its new chief information security officer for the Americas. The former head of information security at Natixis North America will take up his new role on October 8. A spokesperson for Commerzbank confirmed the appointment.

Cyber security will form part of Kartanowicz’s job and he will shape the bank’s cyber strategy, working closely with the risk department.

Earlier in his career, Kartanowicz worked at Principia Partners, a software company.

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Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired Sonali Das Theisen as its new head of fixed income market structure, based in New York. Theisen joined from Citi, where she was head of market structure and data strategy for credit and securitised products. In August, she was appointed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee. Prior to Citi, Theisen was head of credit electronic trading at Barclays and, earlier, worked at Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs.

The appointment follows a reshuffling of the senior ranks of BAML’s fixed income operation earlier this year, with Will Roberts leaving his post as the firm’s head of global rates and counterparty portfolio management in April. Roberts was replaced by two co-heads: Kavi Gupta, previously head of liquid rates trading for the Americas; and Michael Stanley, former global head of derivatives valuation adjustments and co-head of global non-linear trading.

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Paul Fulcher has joined consulting and actuarial firm Milliman as a senior consultant, based in London. The firm said in a statement Fulcher would focus on expanding its asset-liability management (ALM) and capital management offerings to insurance clients.

Fulcher was previously head of ALM structuring for insurers and pension funds at Nomura, as well as co-head of the bank’s insurance solutions group with Richard Glenn. Before joining the bank in 2012, Fulcher was head of European insurance and pensions advisory at Royal Bank of Scotland and worked in risk advisory and capital solutions at UBS.

Risk.net understands Glenn has assumed the role of sole head of Nomura’s insurance solutions group, and that the bank is planning to hire a replacement for Fulcher in the insurance and pension ALM structuring team.   

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Crédit Agricole’s corporate and investment bank has appointed Kashif Zafar as head of sales for the Americas and deputy head of global markets for the Americas. Zafar spent the past 13 years with Barclays, most recently looking after some its most important clients as head of senior relationship management in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Previously, he was co-head of global sales and client strategy, co-head of global macro products and head of Emea sales.

In his new position as head of sales for the Americas at the French investment bank, Kashif will report globally to Thomas Spitz, head of global markets sales, and locally to Gene Kim, who is in charge of the global markets business in the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Kashif will also report to Kim in his other role as deputy head of global markets for the Americas.

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BNY Mellon has appointed Roman Regelman to the new role of head of digital, effective September 17. Regelman leads the firm’s investments in client and internal technologies, including data management, analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics, and will build and head a new global digital team across BNY Mellon. He also joins the firm’s executive committee. Regelman is based in New York and reports to BNY Mellon’s chief executive and chairman Charles Scharf. 

Roman Regelman

Regelman was formerly a partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group.

BNY Mellon has also hired Sabet Elias for a new role of chief technology officer (CTO), based in New York. Elias started on October 1, also joining the firm’s technology executive committee. He reports to chief information officer Bridget Engle.

Elias previously worked at BAML, most recently as the sales and trading CTO, and at Citigroup as CTO and head of electronic trading infrastructure.

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BNP Paribas has promoted Nathaniel Litwak to the role of global head of foreign exchange prime brokerage. He has been tasked with expanding the business, which sits within the bank’s prime solutions and financing division. Based in New York, Litwak reports to Jeff Lowe, Americas head for the division, and Kieron Smith, deputy head of prime solutions and financing.

Litwak has been with BNP Paribas for the past nine years, in senior roles that included leading the bank’s forex prime brokerage platform in the Americas.

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LCH has appointed Kate Birchall as its Asia-Pacific head, effective October 15. Birchall’s responsibilities will include overseeing the central counterparty’s over-the-counter derivatives operations in Sydney and Tokyo. Based in Sydney, she will report to Martin Pluves, chief executive of LCH Ltd, the group’s UK entity.

Birchall will move over from National Australia Bank, where she headed portfolio optimisation and collateral.

In her new role, Birchall will replace Marcus Robinson, who is now head of group business development. Robinson is based in London and reports to Daniel Maguire, LCH chief executive.

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Andy Bria has joined LiquidityEdge, an electronic trading venue for US Treasuries, as chief operating officer, based in New York. His duties include leading the firm’s expansion plans.

Andy Bria

Andy came to LiquidityEdge from Nex Group, where he worked for 14 years, most recently as head of client services for EBS platforms.

Credit rating agency DBRS has promoted Chuck Weilamann to the position of chief credit officer. He will report to Steve Joynt, the agency’s chief executive. Weilamann was previously head of US asset-backed securities (ABS) at DBRS.

Weilamann will work with departing chief credit officer Luis Reyna until the end of the year, when Reyna will return to academia.

Chris D’Onofrio, currently managing director in US ABS, will become head of US consumer ABS.

Additional reporting by Olesya Dmitracova, Alex Krohn, Robert Mackenzie Smith, Steve Marlin, James Ryder and Callum Tanner

Editing by Olesya Dmitracova