People moves: Deutsche Börse appoints UniCredit banker as new CEO

New fixed-income head at Mizuho; trueEX hires CTO; Deutsche fills ETF role; and more

Theodor Weimer, new chief executive at Deutsche Börse

Deutsche Börse has appointed Theodor Weimer as its new chief executive to help the Frankfurt-based stock exchange operator move on from an insider trading probe and make the most of financial sector reorganisation after the UK leaves the European Union.

Weimer is currently the head of HypoVereinsbank, the German arm of Italian-headquartered banking group UniCredit. He will take over from Deutsche Börse’s embattled chief executive Carsten Kengeter, who has announced his resignation and is due to leave the company at the end of the year.

Kengeter is facing an ongoing investigation over alleged insider trading in 2015 linked to Deutsche Börse’s failed merger attempt with the London Stock Exchange. He has always denied any wrongdoing.

Weimer will begin a three-year contract at Deutsche Börse on January 1, 2018. Prior to his current role, he worked at Goldman Sachs as a partner in the investment banking division, at management consultancies McKinsey and, before that, at Bain & Company.

The next few years will be crucial for Deutsche Börse as the UK prepares to exit the EU and the German exchange hopes to grab a share of the euro clearing market, the vast majority of which is based in London.

The future of euro clearing in the UK has been in doubt since the Brexit vote. Under a European Commission proposal, EU entities could be barred from clearing at London-based LCH or subjected to huge capital charges for doing so once the UK leaves the bloc in March 2019.

Deutsche Bank’s regulatory head warned in October that the clearing industry must reach an agreement by early next year on whether to relocate swaps clearing away from LCH if it wanted to minimise disruption to counterparties.

Alongside Weimer’s appointment, Deutsche Börse also extended the management contracts of Andreas Preuss and Jeffrey Tessler by one year. Preuss is deputy chief executive and in charge of IT, operations, the data business and some subsidiaries, while Tessler is responsible for clients, products and core markets.

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Mizuho International has hired Zahra Peerbhoy as head of fixed income, based in London.

Peerbhoy reports to Michiel de Jong, president and chief executive of Mizuho International, and joins the firm’s executive committee.

She will be in charge of fixed-income sales and trading, structured solutions and derivatives at Mizuho International, the securities and investment banking arm of the Japanese megabank.

Peerbhoy started her new role on November 7. Previously, she spent 24 years at Credit Suisse, where her final role was managing director in the global markets division. A Credit Suisse spokesperson declined to comment on whether that position has been filled.

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Interest rate swap execution platform trueEX has appointed Kevin Lupowitz as its chief technology officer.

Based in New York, Lupowitz will report to Sunil Hirani, chief executive and founder of trueEX. Previously, he served as chief information officer at biometric ID firm Clear for five years. Lupowitz has also worked as chief information officer at institutional trading network Liquidnet, and at trading platform FXall.

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Chris Hempstead has joined Deutsche Bank as head of US exchange-traded fund (ETF) sales, based in New York, Risk.net has learnt.

Hempstead started work in the newly created role on November 13. His previous position was head of ETF sales at KCG. Hempstead has also worked for WallachBeth Capital, Cowen and Company, and Van der Moolen. He reports to Chad Lore, Deutsche’s US portfolio trading head.

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Credit Suisse has nabbed Instinet’s John Comerford to be its global head of quantitative trading strategy, starting in February 2018. He will be based in San Francisco and will report to Anthony Abenante, global head of electronic products.

Comerford is head of global trading research at Instinet, responsible for algorithmic trading and analytics platforms at the brokerage. He has also held quantitative trading positions at Nomura and Schwab Capital Markets.

Previously, he launched a quant hedge fund at Symphony Asset Management and developed a minimum variance portfolio at Nisa Investment Advisors.

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Uldis Cerps (pictured), formerly a senior adviser to the director-general at Swedish financial supervisor Finansinspektionen, has taken up a new position as adviser to the governor of the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. Based in Abu Dhabi, Cerps will be advising the governor primarily on banking supervision and regulation.

His previous role at Finansinspektionen has yet to be filled, a spokesperson for the authority says. Cerps also represented the authority at the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. His replacement in this capacity is Karin Lundberg, deputy executive director for banking supervision at Finansinspektionen.

During his nine years at the authority, Cerps also served as a supervisory board member at the European Banking Authority between 2010 and 2015. His career has also included stints as chairman of the Financial and Capital Markets Commission in Latvia, and president and chief executive of the Riga Stock Exchange.

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BNP Paribas has hired Nick Hamilton to lead e-forex sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Emea), a newly created role based in London.

Hamilton reports to Joe Nash, global head of e-forex sales. BNP Paribas already has an e-forex sales head in the US, Joseph Pinto, and in Asia, Ashvin Parkash.

Hamilton began his role in early November after quitting forex platform FastMatch, where he was head of sales for Emea. FastMatch has yet to fill this role, the company says.

Prior to FastMatch, Hamilton held e-forex roles at Citi and Icap.

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Former global head of conduct and supervision for the corporate and investment banking division at Deutsche Bank, Toby Billington, has joined HSBC as global banking chief control officer. Billington will be responsible for the division’s risk and control environment for non-financial risk.  

Prior to his current focus on conduct and controls, Billington has over the past 20 years worked as a banking lawyer for several institutions, including Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays, Bayerische Landesbank, Gulf International Bank and Silicon Valley Bank.

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Richard Berner, director of the Office of Financial Research (OFR), a US government agency mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act to monitor financial markets, has announced he is stepping down from his position at the end of the year.

Berner said in a statement he was relinquishing the role to spend more time with his family. The Treasury has yet to appoint a replacement.

Berner helped to set up the agency during Barack Obama’s presidency and has been its director since 2013. His current term was due to expire in January 2019.

The OFR’s role is to gather and monitor financial market data and spot trends that could indicate threats before they damage the economy.

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Jos Dijsselhof has been appointed the new chief executive of Swiss stock exchange operator Six. From January 1, he will take over from Urs Rüegsegger, who announced in May that he would be retiring.

Dutch citizen Dijsselhof most recently served as chief operating officer for Euronext Amsterdam. His old duties at Euronext have been split between Alain Courbebaisse, Paris-based chief information and technology officer, and Maurice van Tilburg, chief executive of Euronext Amsterdam.

Dijsselhof has previously worked at ABN Amro, ANZ and Royal Bank of Scotland.

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Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking has named Klaus Baader (pictured) as global chief economist. He takes over from Michala Marcussen, who moved up to the role of group chief economist in September.

Baader will report to Brigitte Richard-Hidden, global head of research. His London-based role will be to lead the cross-asset research team of economists.

Baader was previously head of research for Asia, a role that now goes to Mark Keenan. Based in Singapore, Keenan will report to Richard-Hidden, as well as Yann Garnier, head of global markets in Asia-Pacific. Keenan retains his role as global commodities strategist, reporting to Michael Haigh, head of commodities research.

Societe Generale’s chief China economist, Wei Yao, has taken on an extra role as lead economist for Asia-Pacific. Based in Paris, Wei will report to Baader.

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BNP Paribas Asset Management has hired Neil Johnson as head of US institutional business development.

Based in New York, Johnson will report to Daniel Klein, chief executive of BNP Paribas Asset Management North America.

Previously, Johnson worked at RobecoSAM, serving as head of US sales and head of global clients and marketing. He also held roles at Credit Suisse Asset Management, AIG Global Investment Group and Neuberger Berman.

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Andrew Edwards has been named chief executive for Saxo Capital Markets, the UK subsidiary of Saxo Bank. He will take up the role in January.

Edwards has 18 years’ experience in the sector, and was most recently chief executive of ETX Capital, a spread betting firm. Before ETX, he worked at City Index.

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Credit Suisse has hired Paul Galietto as its new Americas head of equities. He took up the role on November 8 and reports to Mike Stewart, global head of equities.

Previously Galietto worked at UBS, where he held the same position. He left UBS in 2015. He has also held senior management positions at Merrill Lynch and began his career at Morgan Stanley.

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Former banker Joseph Otting has taken on the role of US Comptroller of the Currency.

After the Senate voted 54 to 43 in favour of his appointment, he was sworn in on November 27.

Otting replaces Keith Noreika, who had been acting comptroller since May. Otting has a long-running career in banking, with experience at OneWest Bank, US Bank and Union Bank.