In other news, a crypto market data platform launches, RJO’s Robert J. O’Brien, Sr. dies at 103, LPA Group revamps a key platform, Thomson Reuters has a new head of investor relations, and State Street & LSEG deepen their collaboration.
BNP Paribas Takes On 900 Staff Members
BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank officials report that they completed by the end of last year the “transfer of clients, technology and key staff from Deutsche Bank’s global prime finance and electronic equities businesses to BNP Paribas,” which was according to the agreed-upon timeline.
“Over the course of the past two years, BNP Paribas has transferred approximately 900 staff globally from Deutsche Bank,” according to an official statement.
The integrated platform of prime services and electronic equities will help BNP Paribas toward its goal of becoming “the leading European Prime Services player … for institutional investors and corporate clients across the world,” says Olivier Osty, head of global markets and member of the executive committee, BNP Paribas, in a prepared statement.
“With this, Deutsche Bank has achieved a key milestone in its ongoing transformation that is seeing it re-focus its business to become sustainably profitable,” says Rebecca Short, chief transformation officer and member of the management board at Deutsche Bank, in a prepared statement.
After a preliminary agreement, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank signed a master transaction agreement in October 2019 governing the transfer of Deutsche Bank’s prime services.
FTFT Subsidiary Launches Crypto Platform
Future FinTech Group Inc., a blockchain-based e-commerce business and a fintech service provider, reports that its subsidiary, FTFT Capital Investments LLC, has launched FTFTX, a cryptocurrency market data platform.
The platform is meant to provide institutional and individual investors with “real-time, high-quality and reliable cryptocurrency market data and aggregate trading information from a large number of cryptocurrency exchanges.”
The data is available for Bitcoin, ETH, EOS, Litecoin, TRON and other cryptocurrencies, according to the group. — L.Ch
RJO Chairman Emeritus Robert J. O’Brien, Sr. Dies at 103
R.J. O’Brien & Associates (RJO) officials have announced that the firm’s Chairman Emeritus, Robert J. O’Brien, Sr., died January 4 at the age of 103. O’Brien Sr. was touted as a pioneer who helped expand futures trading to new users across the globe,
“Our hearts are heavy at RJO as we mourn the loss but honor the amazing life of Robert J. O’Brien, Sr., the patriarch of the O’Brien family who laid the foundation for the firm we are today,” says RJO Chairman and CEO Gerald Corcoran in a prepared statement.
“At the age of nearly 104, Bob was an inspiration to so many in the futures industry. His integrity, market knowledge and the knack to connect with market participants was unmatched,” Corcoran says. “We are truly grateful for his guidance over the years and blessed that we were able to celebrate our Centennial with him in 2014.”
O’Brien Sr. grew RJO “into the largest independent futures brokerage and clearing firm in the United States,” says Terry Duffy, chairman and CEO of the CME Group, in a statement. “During his long and storied tenure, Bob made many significant contributions to our industry, serving as Chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange from 1967-68 and sponsoring the first woman to work on the trading floor.”
RegTech Platform is Integrated & Renamed
LPA Group, a capital-markets technology and advisory firm, reports that acarda, its regtech platform, has now been
“fully integrated into the LPA product portfolio and will operate under the new name Capmatix Regulations.”
“This rebrand follows the acarda acquisition by LPA in 2019, and it is part of a group-wide initiative to integrate specialist capital markets technology products into LPA’s flagship solutions framework, Capmatix,” the group’s statement notes.
Capmatix Regulations, private cloud platform, will focus on the “automation of regulatory reporting and automated data management.”
The platform will “ensure the implementation of European and local regulatory directives and significantly reduce clients’ reporting efforts and costs,” per the statement.
The groups’s headquarters is in Frankfurt. It also maintains offices in London, Zürich, Madrid, Tel Aviv, New York, Paris, Luxemburg, and Singapore. — L.Ch
Thomson Reuters Names New Head of Investor Relations
Gary Bisbee has been named head of investor relations at Thomson Reuters, joining the company after 20 years as a research/sell-side analyst, the vendor reports. Frank Golden, current head of investor relations, is scheduled to retire in July 2022, according to the Thomson Reuters statement.
Bisbee will be based in New York and report directly to Mike Eastwood, chief financial officer of Thomson Reuters, per the statement. — L.Ch
State Street & LSEG to Focus on New Collaborations
State Street Corp. and the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) have agreed to extend their relationship to facilitate new collaborations, officials say.
“LSEG brings together a broad range of data, indexes and analytical services,” says John Plansky, executive vice president and head of State Street Alpha, in a prepared statement. For instance, State Street is a client of the LSEG’s FTSE Russell and Refinitiv offerings.
“Nearly every part of our business has been using services provided by LSEG for many years and we look forward to continuing to innovate together to serve State Street’s clients,” Plansky says.
The new collaboration will help clients “access market pricing, symbology, and time-series data from Refinitiv in the Charles River Investment Management Solution and the State Street Alpha Data Platform to better inform their investment and risk decisions,” according to State Street officials.
“Charles River clients who subscribe to the service from Refinitiv will benefit from streamlined access to real-time equity, fixed income, and derivative market data alongside existing reference data they currently enjoy,” officials say.
State Street owns Charles River, maker of the Charles River Investment Management Solution (IMS) platform. Charles River’s cloud-deployed software technology forms the foundation of State Street Alpha, officials say.
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