Bloomberg Tradebook re-organises in Asia; introduces block crossing

Bloomberg Tradebook's Tom Kingsley takes over as Asian regional head as the brokerage indicates it is to offer an Asian block crossing service.

Bloomberg Tradebook has said that it plans to roll-out block crossing in Asia during the next two months. Initially, the service will be offered in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia and Singapore, with Hong Kong scheduled to follow at a later date.

The firm has also re-organised its operations in Asia in order to create a unit that operates with a broader regional emphasis, and with greater autonomy from the US headquarters.

The former co-head of the business Tom Kingsley now becomes sole head in Asia and he will focus on product, execution consulting and risk management. The other former co-head, Adrian Chua will run APAC sales.

In Asia, the firm will give additional focus to liquidity management, technology, transaction cost analysis and management services.

The latter business will be run by Isamu Ando, who formerly ran sales in Tokyo and will seek to make use of the firm’s expertise in exchanges and leveraging the infrastructure that the business has built up on those exchanges, helping out clients with connectivity and integration.

“In the past, we have focused on developed Asia and are now planning to widen our coverage across emerging Asia,” said Tom Kingsley. “We will remain multi-asset and will identify where we need to build additional manpower.”

The firm has also appointed a new chief risk officer, Rob Shapiro, who has previously worked at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He will be based in New York. Shapiro has been global head of trading and execution consulting at Bloomberg Tradebook since 2010.

In the first quarter of 2014, total revenues derived from Asia were up 3% at the firm. Asian flow trading the US markets was up 86% year-on-year.

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