US-based market maker has Old Mission has gained regulatory approval to launch a range of new institutional services, and has made two senior hires from Cboe Global Markets and Virtu Financial to drive growth of the new business.
Old Mission confirmed in a statement that it had received a brokerage license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), enabling its subsidiary Old Mission Markets to offer trading services to buy-side firms and ETF issuers.
Ahead of the launch later this year, Old Mission has hired Bryan Christian as a managing director and head of business development and strategy from exchange operator Cboe, where he has worked for the past eight years, most recently as head of US sales.
Alongside Christian, Harry Whitton has been appointed senior vice president and head of ETF sales and trading. He joins from Virtu Financial working within the ETF sales trading business for four years.
“The seismic changes underway in the industry – in particular the rotation of assets from mutual funds to ETFs, the continued tightening of spreads and the increasing focus on execution quality – all play directly into our core strengths,” said Joe Guzowski, Old Mission co-founder and CEO. “The launch of an institutional client-facing business later this year is a natural evolution of our firm, and we could not be happier to have two industry professionals as well-respected as Bryan and Harry lead it.”
Founded in 2008, Old Mission primarily operates a market-making business via its broker-dealer Old Mission Capital, providing on-screen liquidity across exchange-listed assets globally. Using advanced technology, infrastructure and quantitative strategies, the firm has focused on taking short and long positions in the more illiquid ETFs.
“Most of the industry’s largest institutions and ETF issuers have benefited over the last decade from the high-quality liquidity Old Mission provides, often in their hardest-to-trade names,” Christian added. “We look forward to Old Mission now being able to work directly with these clients by offering unmatched prices and service levels, ultimately helping them succeed in the increasingly competitive ETF space.”