People: Barclays loses veteran OTC clearing head Kahn

Barclays loses Kahn, gains JP Morgan's Portney; NIBC hires new CRO; Nomura finds new EM head; and more

Ray Kahn: left Barclays after eight years

Barclays has parted company with long-serving clearing executive Ray Kahn.

Kahn was a managing director with Barclays in New York, leading agency derivatives services risk, treasury, resources and regulatory management. He joined the bank in 2008, initially leading counterparty risk management for the prime services business, before taking charge of over-the-counter derivatives clearing in 2010 – a year after the Group of 20 made mandatory swaps clearing a pillar of its post-crisis reform agenda.

Barclays was the first bank to announce it had started clearing OTC trades for a client, and built rapidly on that early success. It was the largest swaps clearer in the US – measured by total client margin – until mid-2014, when it was overtaken by Credit Suisse. The bank has fallen back in the rankings since then, with many in the industry attributing that to growing regulatory pressure.

Kahn warned consistently of the impact post-crisis prudential rules were having on the clearing business, particularly the leverage ratio, which does not allow futures commission merchants – intermediaries that stand between clients and a clearing house – to offset received client margin against their exposure total.

Other senior clearing figures have left their roles this year, including Dave Olsen at JP Morgan the bank's global head of futures, options and OTC clearing, who left in February. Oliver Frankel, head of central counterparty risk at Goldman Sachs, retired in March.

Last year, BNP Paribas parted ways with its head of European clearing, Gavin Dixon, and Nomura closed its European and US OTC clearing business.

Kahn could not be reached for comment.

 

Emily Portney, the former global head of agency clearing and collateral management at JP Morgan, has joined Barclays as chief financial officer (CFO) for its corporate and international division. Portney left JP Morgan earlier this year after more than 20 years. She was appointed to her most recent role in 2012, having previously headed the futures and options business globally. She had also served as CFO for the bank's equities business.

At Barclays, Portney is based in New York and reports to Tushar Morzaria, group finance director, and Joe Gold, deputy chief executive of the corporate and international division.

 

Dutch investment bank NIBC has appointed Reinout van Riel as chief risk officer (CRO) and a member of the management board.

Since 2014, van Riel had served as chief portfolio officer at Propertize, a Netherlands-based company created to manage the real estate portfolio of nationalised lender SNS Reaal. Prior to that, he served as chief restructuring officer of SNS Property Finance, a subsidiary of SNS Reaal.

He previously held senior roles at ABN Amro and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Van Riel is based in The Hague and reports to Paulus de Wilt, the bank's chief executive.

 

Nomura has appointed Anant Swarup as London-based head of emerging markets macro for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea).

Previously, Swarup was based in Singapore, where he was in charge of north Asia rates and non-linear rates for Asia ex-Japan. He first joined the Japanese bank in 2008 as head of yen derivatives and non-yen trading activities in Tokyo.

At Nomura Swarup will bring together sales, trading, research and structuring in Nomura's fixed income business in Emea emerging markets. He will report to Yukata Nakajima, London-based head of global markets for Emea, and Rig Karkhanis, Singapore-based chair of the global emerging markets executive committee.

 

CME Europe, the London-based derivatives exchange operated by CME Group, has hired Alexander Cave as director of foreign exchange sales.

Previously, Cave served as a vice-president in electronic trading at Citi in London. At CME, he will fill a position left vacant by the departure of David Emerick, who left the firm in February.

Cave will join CME Europe in London on August 31. He will report to Jo Shannon, executive director of commercial development.

 

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Jennifer Long as accountable executive for Europe's second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid II) and the Market Abuse Regulation (Mar). Long will oversee the programme for implementing Mifid II and Mar rules in the UK. She stepped into the role in July and reports to Marc Teasdale, director of market oversight.

 

Rishabh Bhandari, the New York-based former head of structured equity derivatives trading at Credit Suisse, has joined Nomura as a managing director in equity derivatives.

Bhandari left Credit Suisse as head of structured equity derivatives trading earlier this year. He joined Nomura in July and reports to Michael Caperonis, head of equities  and credit trading in the Americas, says a source. Nomura did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Traiana, the post-trade services firm owned by London-based interdealer broker Icap, has hired Basu Choudhury as foreign exchange product lead. Choudhury previously served as London-based head of product for LCH ForexClear, the OTC forex clearing service run by LCH. He left ForexClear in March, along with its chief executive Gavin Wells. Choudhury joined Traiana on August 1 and reports to Joanna Davies, UK-based head of product.

 

Lee McCormack, a former executive director of over-the-counter clearing business development at Nomura, has joined CloudMargin in London.

At CloudMargin, a London-based technology firm offering services for collateral management, McCormack will become head of product strategy. He reports to chief executive Steven Husk.