In other news, Randal Quarles is moving on, Exegy and Vela have related executive shuffles, and Encompass makes a key hire.
Genstar to Be Majority Owner of Combined Company
Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solutions vendors ACA Group and Foreside Financial Group have signed a definitive agreement to combine their two companies, officials say.
Private equity firm Genstar Capital, which invested in Foreside earlier this year, will become the majority owner of the combined business via the purchase of a controlling interest in ACA from Starr Investment Holdings, officials say. These conditions will be finalized when the transaction closes, which is expected during the first half of 2022.
The merger will yield a suite of GRC consulting, technology, managed services, analytics, and outsourcing solutions, officials say. The combined company to come will have more than 1,100 employees and 16 offices globally and will serve over 5,000 clients.
Shvetank Shah, CEO of ACA Group, will become CEO of the new company upon completion of the transaction, officials say. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions, and officials declined to disclose the terms of the transaction.
Jefferies LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor to ACA while Raymond James & Associates served as financial advisor to Genstar and Foreside, officials say. Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to ACA. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as legal counsel to Genstar and Foreside.
Randal Quarles to Leave the Fed
Randal Quarles
Randal K. Quarles has submitted his resignation Monday as a member of the Federal Reserve Board, effective at the end of December 2021. He was the Board’s first vice chair for supervision and has been a board member since October 13, 2017, according to a Fed statement.
As vice chair for supervision, he “oversaw the supervision and regulation of financial firms in the Board’s jurisdiction,” the Fed statement notes. “He served simultaneously as Chair of the Financial Stability Board, or FSB, an international body established by the G20 to ensure the resilience of the global financial system. His three-year term as FSB Chair ends on December 2.
“In both positions, he played a central role in ensuring the safe operation of both the domestic and international financial systems during the stress of the COVID event,” the statement points out.
Prior to becoming a Fed board member, Quarles was founder and managing director of the Cynosure Group, a private investment firm, per the statement, and “served in a variety of senior positions at the Treasury Department under both Bush administrations, including Under Secretary for Domestic Finance, was the U.S. Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, and was a partner at both the Carlyle Group, and earlier, Davis Polk & Wardwell.”
In his resignation letter, he says, “After more than four years as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and given the completion last month of my term as Vice Chairman for Supervision of the Board, I intend to resign my position as a Governor of the Federal Reserve during or around the last week of December of this year.”
— L.Ch
Executive Shuffle as Exegy & Vela Merger Approaches
Jen Nayer
The merger of Exegy Inc. and Vela Trading Systems, still in process, has named a chief financial officer, who also will join its integration-management cadre. The new CFO is David Foster, an accounting and financial veteran, with more than 30 years of experience.
Exegy also reports the departure of Jen Nayar, Vela’s previous CEO, who also was Exegy’s chief integration officer, per the statement, which points out that, since the merger process began, Nayar, working with Exegy’s CEO Jim O’Donnell, “has been responsible for charting and monitoring the progress of the company’s integration efforts.”
In addition, Krista Steward, Exegy’s previous CFO, has been appointed chief integration officer.
Exegy is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, with regional offices in the U.S., U.K., and Asia Pacific regions, the vendor notes. The merger, first reported in May 2021, is “financially backed by Marlin Equity Partners,” according to a statement. — L.Ch
Encompass Names Head of Industry & Regulatory Affairs
Encompass Corp., a provider of know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) software, has appointed Dr. Henry Balani, a veteran financial-services executive and academic, to the post of global head of industry and regulatory affairs.
Balani will be “responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with regulators, initiating research into key market issues, informing product strategy and representing the company,” according to the firm’s statement, which also notes that he will be based in the U.S., but “will oversee operations across all territories.”
Balani “lectures on international management and financial crime compliance, and publishes research related to the impact of AML penalties and regulations on banking sector valuations in the US and Europe,” according to the company’s statement.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Dr. Balani is an adjunct professor of business at Northern Illinois University and an adjunct professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. — L.Ch
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