Things are afoot at Citi.
The broker-dealer has announced via internal memo that it has decided to make changes in its Equities and Securities Services business which is now organized under two leaders, a Global Head of Equities and a Global Head of Securities Services, to allow for greater focus and accountability. The construct is similar to our Rates and Currencies business. This will also allow Dan Keegan, who has been dual-hatting as Co-Head of ESS and Head of North America Markets and Securities Services (NAM MSS), to focus entirely on the NAM MSS role.
The memo, seen by Traders Magazine, is as follows:
To: Markets and Securities Services Colleagues
From: Carey Lathrop and Andy Morton
Date: May 11, 2020
Re: ESS Organizational Announcement
We have decided to organize our Equities and Securities Services (ESS) business under two leaders, a Global Head of Equities and a Global Head of Securities Services, to allow for greater focus and accountability.
Securities Services will include Custody and Fund Services (CFS), Direct Custody and Clearing (DCC), Futures, Clearing & FX Prime Brokerage (FCX), and Agency Lending and will be run by Okan Pekin.
Equities will comprise Equity Cash, Equity Derivatives, Prime Finance/Delta One and the Multi Asset Group.
We are pleased to announce that Fater Belbachir will be joining Citi in August to lead this business. Fater was most recently the Global Head of Equities and Cross Asset structuring at Barclays. Prior to that, he spent 12 years at JP Morgan in various Equities Trading leadership roles including Global Head of Equity Derivatives Trading and Structuring.
We have asked Dan Keegan, who has been dual-hatting as Co-Head of ESS and Head of North America Markets and Securities Services (NAM MSS), to focus entirely on the NAM MSS role, as well as his role as CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Inc (CGMI). The responsibilities and demands of both jobs have increased significantly over the past year; Dan’s leadership of NAM MSS will be particularly integral going forward as we carefully plan our strategy and operations post-pandemic.
We will maintain the Equities and Securities Service construct, in recognition of the closeness of the activities, overlap of clients, and cross-sell opportunities. The ESS regional heads — Chris Cox, Ricardo Hesse, Cedric Pauwels, and Julia Raiskin — will report to Okan and Fater, in addition to their existing regional reporting lines.
Effective immediately, Global Equities will be run by the two of us, until Fater starts in August.
We are excited about these changes and believe they will help build on the progress we’ve made in ESS revenues, market share and operating efficiency.
