Citi have confirmed that the departure of Jack Vensel as head of the US-based bank’s global wholesale services business is part of a repositioning of the firm’s trading proposition to institutional clients.
Vensel’s exit, which coincides with the bank’s recently announced job cuts, will be followed by a combination of Citi’s electronic trading business with its wholesale business, responsible for services to broker-dealers.
Vensel, joined Citi in 2007 following the US$680 million purchase of electronic market making and proprietary trading firm Automated Trading Desk. He was made head of electronic trading for the EMEA region in 2009 before being appointed to lead the wholesale business in March this year.
Tim Wildenberg, formerly head of UBS’ Direct Execution business, replaced Vensel as head of European electronic trading in July and will now lead the combined unit.
Citi’s wholesale business covers a wide range of services to the sell-side, but specifically includes a complete front-to-back service known as Execution to Custody, or E2C, which is also offered to large buy-side clients. As well as electronic execution capabilities, this also includes clearing and custody services from the bank’s Global Transaction Services division.
“Clients of our wholesale business are now demanding more than simple DMA capabilities to execute their orders, which has created an increasing crossover with our electronic trading business,” Wildenberg told theTRADEnews.com. “Wholesale clients now want custom algos and more sophisticated routing strategies as part of the execution capabilities we provide.”
He added that the combination of the two sales teams who also help the firm to win more business.
On 6 December, Citi CEO Vikram Pandit stated that the bank would cut nearly 4,500 jobs across the firm in the next few quarters. A number of large investment banks have announced plans to reduce headcount in recent months, including Credit Suisse, which has announced 3,500 job losses since July and Nomura which said it would cut 400 jobs in September. Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley became the latest Wall Street bank to reduce staff, announcing 1,600 job cuts in Q1 2012.