A series of promotions have been aimed at strengthening broker Newedge’s clearing services, while in Chicago the company has extended its clearing services to include OTC interest rate swaps.
Leslie Richman and Duncan Crawford have been appointed co-global heads of the Alternative Investment Solutions (AIS) group, a part of Newedge’s prime clearing services division. Richman is based in Chicago and has already been leading AIS’s US operations for nearly two decades, while Crawford is based in London and has run Newedge’s Capital Introductions business globally for the past 12 years.
Keith Johnson has been appointed global head of Capital Introductions, based in Chicago, a promotion from his role as head of Capital Introductions, Americas.
James Skeggs and Ryan Duncan will co-run the AIS Advisory Group globally, providing investor-focused analysis on hedge fund strategies.
“The new structure reflects our strong focus on best of class client service on a truly global level and further enhances our core offerings,” said Chris Topple, global head of prime clearing services at Newedge.
Meantime, the firm has been approved for membership to clear OTC interest rate swaps (IRS) at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
This makes Newedge the first futures commission merchant and non-traditional OTC IRS swap dealer to offer central counterparty clearing of OTC interest rate derivatives as the Dodd-Frank Act attempts to bring more OTC derivatives on exchange and centrally cleared.
“Change inevitably breeds opportunity,” said Nicolas Breteau, CEO, Newedge. “The developing regulatory agenda has created the opening for Newedge to bring our world-class listed derivatives and OTC commodity swaps clearing expertise to the OTC IRS space. Membership of the CME is another important step forward towards fully realising this opportunity.”