UBS block trading veteran departs for senior equities role with BTIG

Nigel Fenn joins BTIG focusing on block trading across various markets after more than a decade with UBS in a similar role.

US-based agency broker BTIG has expanded its institutional equities trading business in Europe with the appointment of a block trading specialist and UBS veteran as managing director.  

Nigel Fenn joins BTIG based in London and will cover the broker’s institutional equity clients in Europe and the US, focusing on block trading across developed, emerging and frontier markets, the firm said in a statement.

Fenn has 25 years’ experience working in senior roles across the institutional equity trading industry, most recently as a managing director at UBS in London where he spent 13 years leading the European equity block business and managing EMEA equity trading for US clients. Prior to his time at UBS, Fenn held similar sales trading roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC.

“We are pleased to welcome Nigel to BTIG. His appointment reflects our commitment to identifying professionals that can seamlessly navigate the marketplace on behalf of our institutional clients,” said Christopher Rollins, chief executive of BTIG Limited in London. “His product knowledge, network of relationships and deep understanding of global market structure will further strengthen our coverage team, which continues to deliver a differentiated product along with exceptional client service worldwide.”

Block trading has become a key part of the equities trading landscape in Europe following the introduction of restrictions on dark pool trading under MiFID II. The regulation’s double volume caps (DVCs) has seen the number of orders executed above the large in scale (LIS) threshold grow significantly, as LIS trading benefits from waivers enabling participants to negotiate trades without pre-trade transparency.

In September, BTIG opened a new office in Stockholm, Sweden, and promoted one of its senior equity sales traders to manage the business in the new location. Tony Nilsson previously worked within BTIG’s institutional equity sales trading team in London, but was promoted to managing director and head of Scandinavian sales trading.

Rollins said at the time that the new office, which is BTIG’s third office in Europe after the broker opened its London office in 2008 and in Edinburgh in 2015, is ideally located in Stockholm as the company looks to establish a presence in Scandinavia.

«