In other news, ICE works with GreenTrees, NatWest has a new chief information officer, the SEC blesses MEMX Options, and Northern Trust bolsters asset servicing in North America.
Arcesium Hires from BlackRock
Mahesh Narayan
Arcesium reports that it has hired the former commercial director for BlackRock’s Aladdin Data Cloud, Mahesh Narayan, to be the institutional asset manager segment head for the data management solutions vendor.
Narayan will oversee Arcesium’s “cloud-native data platform, investment lifecycle solutions, and associated financial operations,” according to the official announcement. These offerings are intended to help asset managers scale operations and mitigate risk.
At BlackRock, Narayan supported “large global asset managers and owners in their data strategy, data analytics, and data re-platforming needs,” according to Arcesium.
Arcesium leverages a platform developed by investment and technology development firm, the D. E. Shaw group, officials say. Arcesium is a joint venture with Blackstone Alternative Asset Management. JPMorgan subsequently made a strategic investment in our company
In 2022, Arcesium won “Best Reconciliation Solution,” one of the honors of the 11th annual Technology Innovation Awards of FTF News. The award was for Arcesium’s solution to verify the accuracy of data, reduce operational risk, and improve business control.
ICE Plans Carbon Credits Auctions for GreenTrees
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), a provider of data, technology, and market infrastructure, reports that it plans to begin carbon credit auctions for GreenTrees, a U.S.-based reforestation program operator.
GreenTrees is wholly owned by ACRE Investment Management LLC.
ICE plans to host two carbon credit auctions for GreenTrees in the fourth quarter of 2022, the exchange says in a statement. “Each auction will offer 250,000 Emission Reduction Tons (ERTs) from GreenTrees’ reforestation projects. The ERTs offered for sale by GreenTrees are issued by the American Carbon Registry (ACR) with each ERT representing the removal from the atmosphere of the equivalent of one metric ton of carbon dioxide.”
“Forestation is nature’s technology for removing carbon and represents the most viable, scalable, cost-effective means for answering climate change now and in the future. GreenTrees is the only carbon removal project that is open to small, medium and large landowners, covering acres from as low as 7 acres, up to 3,500 acres,” Chandler Van Voorhis, manager and co-founder of GreenTrees, says in a statement. “By working with ICE, the world’s leading environmental marketplace, we can now connect one of the largest global networks of companies to everyday landowners, who are our first responders to climate change.”
In its statement, ICE points out that it has “operated environmental markets for almost two decades and offers customers access to the largest and most liquid environmental markets in the world. During this time, over 100 billion tons of carbon allowances, over 250 million renewable energy certificates, three billion carbon credits, and the equivalent of over 1.4 billion Renewable Identification Numbers have traded on ICE.”
In addition, ICE spotlights its “ten-year history in conducting carbon auctions, having conducted carbon allowance auctions on behalf of the UK Government since 2012.”
ICE “designs, builds and operates digital networks to connect people to opportunity,” per the exchange company’s statement. “We operate exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange, and clearing houses that help people invest, raise capital and manage risk across multiple asset classes,” officials say. — L.Ch
NatWest Taps Deutsche Bank for Top IT Executive
Scott Marcar
NatWest Group reports that Scott Marcar will join its executive committee as group chief information officer. The appointment is effective from 5 September 2022, and is subject to regulatory approval, per NatWest.
Marcar will report directly to Alison Rose, the group’s chief executive officer. He joins the group from Deutsche Bank, where he was the investment bank’s chief information officer.
He has more than 25 years of technology experience, according to the NatWest statement, “having led teams across a wide range of financial services functions including corporate and investment banking, risk, finance, financial crime, infrastructure, data, and architecture.”
The NatWest statement adds that Simon McNamara, “after almost 10 years as Group Chief Administrative Officer, has decided to take a new role in the Group as a Senior Advisor, managing and growing a number of key investments for the Bank.” — L.Ch
SEC Says MEMX Can Trade Options
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the greenlight for the formation of MEMX Options by allowing the forthcoming venue to trade listed options. The parent company Members Exchange, or MEMX, is an independent equities exchange that launched in the fall of 2020.
“MEMX Options, will leverage the strengths of MEMX’s data-centric exchange architecture and state-of-the-art infrastructure. The exchange will use a price time-model and is expected to launch in early 2023,” according to MEMX.
Founded in 2019, MEMX officials say it offer “a simpler platform and features to benefit both retail and institutional investors.”
Northern Trust Adds Two to NorAm Asset Servicing
Dean Marziarz
Northern Trust reports that Dean Marziarz and Mauricio Sandoval have joined as senior business development representatives for asset servicing in North America.
Marziarz will head business development for private capital fund services, which “provides middle and back office solutions for a range of alternative investment managers,” according to Northern Trust’s statement.
Northern Trust also notes that Marziarz has “more than 20 years of asset servicing experience at BNY Mellon and JP Morgan, where he successfully developed and led strategic private markets relationships with large alternative investment managers.”
Sandoval will head business development for the insurance solutions practice in North America, which “provides a comprehensive offering for insurance companies, integrating investment management and advisory services, middle- and back-office operations, capital markets capabilities and portfolio management support,”
Maurico Sandoval
The statement also notes that Sandoval joins from BNY Mellon, “where he was a senior relationship manager with asset servicing clients including traditional and alternative asset managers, banks, broker dealers and asset owners. He has more than two decades of experience in financial services.”
Northern Trust Corp. was founded in Chicago in 1889, the firm notes, and now maintains offices in 22 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., and across 23 locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.
As of June 30, 2022, Northern Trust had assets under custody/administration of US$13.7 trillion, and assets under management of US$1.3 trillion. — L.Ch
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