The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) has made a new senior hire for its equity trading unit in London, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
James Lockley will be joining the business in September and will be heading up the team’s sales trading offering, according to the individuals who spoke to The TRADE on condition of anonymity as the matter is private.
Lockley and CIBC both declined to comment. Kepler Cheuvreux did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prior to joining the French firm where he was employed as a sales trader for over five years, Lockley worked as a trader at broker GFI Group. Before this he was a trader at US bank, Jefferies.
CIBC is a multinational banking and financial services company with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, with its London office based in the heart of the city on Cheapside.
The Canadian bank is looking to grow its London equities offering and this new hire forms part of that strategy, said one source, who added that the bank has changed its reporting lines to run the business out of London rather than Toronto, where the financial services firm is headquartered.
The team in London will reportedly consist of three members of staff who will be responsible for trading, sales and growing the equities business.
The UK government said it would move forward with plans to reverse the EU-inherited ban on free research for clients earlier this week, removing unbundling rules which were part of the MiFID II regulations which came into effect in January 2018.
The move comes as part of the government’s efforts to boost the attractiveness of the UK’s financial services sector and is the latest divergence in regulation from the EU following Brexit.