People moves: SocGen’s Saffon Japan-bound, Citi promotes Rafi, and more

Societe Generale’s chief operating officer for global markets, Marc Saffon, is returning to Asia as head of markets in Japan.

Saffon will be based in Tokyo, reporting jointly to Jerome Niddam, head of global markets for Asia-Pacific, and Koji Shimamoto, president of Societe Generale’s securities business in Japan.

This is Saffon’s second stint in Asia. Previously he was head of financial engineering for the global markets business in Asia, based in Hong Kong. He moved back to Europe in 2015, serving first as head of financial engineering, and subsequently as chief operating officer, both for global markets.

Saffon replaces Arnaud Lhoste, who is moving to Paris to take up the role of global head of fixed income and currency sales for corporates. Lhoste joined SocGen in 2002 as part of the global markets cross-asset institutional sales team. In his new role, Lhoste reports to Sylvain Cartier, head of fixed income and currencies, and to Yann Garnier, head of market activities sales.

Pascale Moreau, global co-head of fixed income and derivatives sales, will replace Saffon as the bank’s chief operating officer for global markets. Moreau will report to Jean-Francois Gregoire, head of global markets. She joined the bank in 1998 as part of the corporate sales team for France, according to her LinkedIn profile.

SocGen reported losses in the first two quarters of this year of €326 million ($380 million) and €1.26 billion respectively. The corporate division, which includes global markets, was a particular drain on the bank’s overall performance, with losses of €1.86 billion in the first half of the year. The bank is now overhauling its structured products business.

Citi has promoted Mariam Rafi to global head of financial resource management for futures, clearing and foreign exchange prime brokerage (FXPB) – a role she will carry out alongside her current position as Americas head of over-the-counter clearing and FXPB.

Before joining Citi in 2011, Rafi spent nine years at Deutsche Bank. In her new role, Rafi reports to Chris Perkins, global head of OTC clearing and FXPB.

Jennifer Taylor will also join Citi as chief compliance officer for the institutional clients group, starting on December 7. Based in the UK, she will report to Mary McNiff, chief compliance officer.

Taylor leaves Bank of America, where she was head of compliance and operational risk for the UK and central and eastern Europe. Former roles at Bank of America include chief operating officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa; chief operating officer for Asia-Pacific; and chief administrative officer for Asia-Pacific.

Elsewhere, the US bank has hired Moe Matar as managing director of its cloud computing platform. Matar previously spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs, most recently as head of cloud development and chief technology officer for Goldman’s retail bank Marcus. In his new role at Citi, Matar reports to Jim Adams, chief technology officer for enterprise infrastructure operations and technology.

Robin Vince, former chief risk officer at Goldman Sachs, has joined Bank of New York Mellon as chief executive officer for global market infrastructure.

Vince will be in charge of BNY Mellon’s clearance and collateral management, treasury services and markets businesses, and the Pershing arm. He will also serve as vice-chair of BNY Mellon.

Vince previously spent 25 years at Goldman Sachs.

Conor Yuan has joined Goldman Sachs as head of emerging markets credit flow trading in Asia. Yuan moves across from the buy side, where he was senior portfolio manager at Value Partners Group, a Hong Kong asset manager. Before that, he headed UBS’s Asia credit trading operations, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Yuan takes over from Amanda Wu, Goldman’s former co-head of Asia flow credit trading, who left the bank in July to join rival Morgan Stanley. Goldman confirmed the move but declined to comment on reporting lines.

HSBC Global Asset Management has appointed Philip Knueppel to the newly created role of head of exchange-traded fund sales for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Knueppel joins from Deutsche Bank Wealth Management, where he spent 10 years in various roles, including regional head of passive investments. Before that, he was product manager on the structured products desk at ABN Amro.

Based in Frankfurt, Knueppel will be responsible for selling the firm’s ETF platform across the region. He reports to Olga De Tapia, global head of ETF sales.

HSBC GAM has also named Rachida Mourahib as head of fixed income ESG (environmental, social and governance) and green research within the global credit research team. She will be based in Paris and report to Tina Radovic, global head of credit research.

Mourahib has been at HSBC since 2006, having initially joined as an ESG analyst. Prior to this, she was an ESG and corporate governance analyst at BNP Paribas Asset Management.

UK asset management giant Aberdeen Standard Investments has hired Mark Redman as global head of private markets. Redman succeeds Peter McKellar, who retires at the end of September after more than 20 years at ASI.

Redman joins from OMERS, a C$100 billion Canadian benefit pension plan. The move is subject to regulatory approval. Redman will report to Rod Paris, chief investment officer at ASI.

US asset manager PineBridge Investments has appointed Brian McCarthy as chief risk officer for Europe. McCarthy joins from the Ireland office of investment manager Ashmore, where he was chief risk officer for a year. Before that, he spent eight years as head of market and liquidity risk for Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency.

In his new role, McCarthy is based in Dublin and reports to Tracie Ahern, chief financial officer and chief risk officer.

EDF Trading has appointed Jean-Benoȋt Ritz as chief technology officer. Ritz moves across from EDF Energy, where he spent five years as director of innovation and data. Prior to this, he was founder and director of EDF Energy’s UK research and development centre.

Valdis Dombrovskis has been named EU trade policy chief, following Phil Hogan’s departure in August after reports that he broke coronavirus lockdown restrictions in Ireland. Dombrovskis will give up control of financial services policy, but continue to join meetings of eurozone finance ministers.

Mairead McGuinness has replaced Hogan as commissioner in charge of financial services and financial stability. The move marks the first personnel change in European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s team of national commissioners since she took office last December.

Caroline Crenshaw has been appointed as commissioner at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Crenshaw previously served as a career SEC staff attorney in the office of compliance inspections and examinations and the division of investment management. Prior to government service, she worked in the Washington, DC office of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan. 

Also at the SEC, Marc Berger has been named deputy director of the division of enforcement. Berger is currently director of the SEC’s New York regional office, in charge of 400 staff responsible for enforcement actions and compliance inspections in the New York region. Before joining the SEC, Berger was a litigation partner at Ropes & Gray.

The European Securities and Markets Authority has appointed Klaus Löber as chair of the supervisory committee for central counterparties. Löber is joined by independent members Froukelien Wendt and Nicoletta Giusto. Löber has spent the past four years at the European Central Bank as a senior adviser within the market infrastructures and payments division. Before that, he was head of secretariat for the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures.

Wendt has spent the past eight years at the International Monetary Fund as financial market infrastructure lead in securities and derivatives clearing and settlement systems. Giusto currently serves as head of international relations at Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa, a role she has held for 11 years.

The trio will serve a five-year mandate, which can be extended once.

Additional reporting by Hamad Ali

Editing by Alex Krohn