People moves: BoE’s Roth moves to crypto, UBS bolsters US execution hub, and more

Former Bank of England supervisor Benedict Roth has moved to crypto brokerage and exchange Zodia, a joint venture between Standard Chartered and BC Technology. Roth will be chief risk officer. Zodia aims to provide digital custody and trading services for institutions, in assets such as bitcoin, ethereum and others.

“When we’re thinking about safe, secure institutional-grade services, you can imagine that risk is right at the centre of everything we do, so from my point of view coming on board was a very interesting opportunity,” Roth says. 

A counterparty credit risk specialist, Roth joined the UK’s Financial Services Authority in April 2012. The following year, the regulator was split into a prudential unit, which was rolled into the Bank of England, and a consumer-facing body. Roth moved into the prudential unit as a specialist supervisor, overseeing international investment banks. He then took a role in the central bank’s rulemaking area where he worked on regulatory arbitrage and repo markets. 

In September 2018, Roth was seconded to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. While there, he was appointed chief risk officer with responsibility for revamping the ministry’s risk management structure. 

Not wanting to become a “career regulator”, Roth decided to join the crypto venture, which is expected to launch at the end of the year, dependent upon regulatory approval. 

Roth sees a growing digital influence on the financial services industry, not just through cryptocurrencies but also central bank digital currencies. But the new role comes with challenges. In recent months, several crypto exchanges have suffered from theft either through internal or external fraud. There is also the added consideration of reputational risk to an established brand like Standard Chartered. Roth points out this is exactly the reason he has been hired to the role. 

“This is an institutional-grade venture. It’s got the name of Standard Chartered behind it and we are incredibly sensitive to our public reputation,” he says. 

London-based Roth started in the new role on July 1.

Jon Slavin has joined UBS to head its execution hub in the US, according to an internal memo seen by Risk.net. Slavin’s hire comes as UBS aims to offer outsourced trading to US hedge funds and asset managers before the end of the year. 

Slavin was previously global head of equity trading at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He has also held roles at Pimco, Weiss Multi-Strategy and Sigma Capital. Slavin will report locally to Todd Lopez, head of execution services for Americas, and globally to Mark Goodman, global head of UBS execution hub. 

Working under Slavin will be Sherri Cohen, who will work in business development for the US execution hub. Cohen will also be moving over from MSIM, where she managed global emerging markets trading and steered the build of the firm’s trading systems. 

Jean-François Grégoire has left his position as global head of markets at Societe Generale. Sylvain Cartier and Alexandre Fleury have replaced him as co-heads of global markets. Both will retain their existing roles – Cartier as head of credit, fixed income and currencies and Fleury as head of equities and equity derivatives. They also become members of the bank’s management committee. Cartier and Fleury report to Slawomir Krupa, global banking and investor solutions head.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has named Randall Chafetz as vice-chairman of global corporate and investment banking, a newly created role. Based in New York, Chafetz moves from his previous post as deputy chief executive of global corporate and investment banking. Chafetz joined in 1998 as head of capital markets at Bank of Tokyo, which later became part of the group. Chafetz reports to Masato Miyachi, chief executive of global corporate and investment banking. 

BNY Mellon has added Alejandro Perez as chief operating officer for global market infrastructure. Perez reports to Robin Vince, vice-chair and chief executive officer of global market infrastructure. Perez joins from fintech Unqork, where he was head of capital markets. 

Credit Suisse has made changes to its equity capital markets team. Felipe Portillo becomes head of Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) risk. Based in Madrid, Portillo retains his existing role as head of Americas risk. He reports to Anthony Kontoleon, global head of equity capital markets syndicate. Taking over as head of Emea syndicate is Antonio Limones, who is also based in Madrid and reports to Portillo.  Paolo Celesia becomes head of southern Europe equity capital markets. Also based in Madrid, he reports to Nick Koemtzopoulos, head of Emea equity capital markets origination. 

Burcu Korkut is joining Barclays as head of Emea emerging market macro and local sales. Korkut was previously co-head of emerging markets sales in global trading solutions at Credit Suisse. She also held the position of vice-chairman of the board of Credit Suisse Turkey. Korkut will start in September, reporting to Filippo Zorzoli, head of macro and solutions sales for Emea and Asia-Pacific. 

Euronext has appointed Claudia Kerr as head of business management for global markets. Based in London, Kerr will report to Chris Topple, head of global sales. Before joining Euronext, Kerr was a business manager at CME Group. 

David Scott has joined the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority as interim general counsel, following the departure of former general counsel Sean Martin. Scott was previously a litigation partner at law firm Freshfields until his retirement in October last year. Daniel Thornton becomes deputy general counsel, moving from his current role as director of enforcement legal. Raj Parker is also expected to join the regulator as a part-time senior legal adviser. Parker is an associate member at Matrix Chambers, and a part-time judge and arbitrator. All three will report to the regulator’s chief executive officer, Nikhil Rathi.

The Association for Financial Markets in Europe has appointed Thalia Chryssikou, head of global sales strategies and structuring at Goldman Sachs, as chair of its board, effective from July 1. Chryssikou replaces Michael Cole-Fontayn who had held the position since September 2015. 

Flavio Carpenzano has joined investment management firm Capital Group as an investment director on the European fixed income team. Carpenzano moves from AllianceBernstein, where he was a senior investment strategist. Based in London, Carpenzano will report to Jeremy Cunningham, fixed income investment director. 

Hedge fund Sinclair Capital has hired Charlotte Hervouet as partner and head of investor relations and business development.  In her previous role at North Asset Management, Hervouet was head of investor relations.  She will be based in London, reporting to Massimo Stabilini, founder of the hedge fund and chief investment officer. 

Consultancy firm Capco has hired Alex Ross-Wilson as a partner. Based in London, Ross-Wilson will oversee the firm’s UK banking practice. Ross-Wilson was previously senior strategic change director in group transformation at HSBC, and before that spent 20 years at consulting firm Accenture.  He will report to Mike Ethelston, UK managing partner. 

David Baeza-Rojano has joined BearingPoint RegTech as country lead for Spain and Andorra. Previously head of financial supervision at consulting firm Everis, Baeza-Rojano will work under Robert Wagner, chief operating officer.