The transaction was made with Banque de France and represents the first repo transaction in digital securities with an Eurosystem’s central bank.

“This transaction demonstrates the technical feasibility of interbank refinancing operations directly on blockchain. It illustrates the potential of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to improve the liquidity of digital financial securities,” said Societe Generale in an official announcement.
 
Specifically, the transaction consisted of Societe Generale depositing some bonds issued in 2020 on the public Ethereum blockchain as collateral with the Banque de France in exchange for CBDC issued by the Banque de France on its DL3S blockchain.

Societe Generale is demonstrably continuing to make moves to adapt to technological developments which benefit their client base.

Last year, AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) completed its first market transaction using stablecoins issued by SG-FORGE as part of a new joint experiment.

SG-FORGE’s CoinVertible (EURCV) stablecoins were used as part of the transaction.

The post Societe Generale completes first repo on public blockchain appeared first on The TRADE.

Jesper Bremholm joined Katamaran Capital as an execution trader following a year and a half as equity trader at Kuvari Partners. Bremholm began his new role on 2 December, with the move following Kuvari’s decision to give back external capital in September and become a family office, The TRADE understands. Bremholm has previously served at firms including: BLS Capital Fondsmæglerselskab, Nykredit, and Nordea.

Paul Atkins was appointed chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), following Gary Gensler’s departure – set for 20 January 2025. Atkins was initially appointed by President George W. Bush as a commissioner of the SEC in July 29 2002, where he served until August 2008. set for 20 January 2025.

Liquidnet made three new hires into its European Execution & Quantitative Services (EQS) team as it seeks to grow its execution offering across the region. Among the new hires is Prashanth Manoharan who has been named head of execution consulting, EMEA. He was most recently director of cash equities analytics at BNP Paribas.

Oliver Ekers also joined the team, as an execution trader, having most recently served in the same role – focused on Europe – at Instinet. At Liquidnet he will cover sales trading across both high-touch and algo trading. The third new hire is Henry Baugniet, who joins as an execution analyst, leveraging his wealth of experience as a data scientist. Previously, Baugniet built a real-time trading strategy for the Betfair exchange.

Societe Generale made three new appointments to its Global Markets Activities team in a bid to enhance its fixed income and equities offerings. Francisco Oliveira was appointed co-head of global markets activities and head of fixed income and currencies. He joined from BNP Paribas and his move is effective as of 6 January 2025.

Meanwhile, New York-based Sylvain Cartier was appointed head of global markets for the Americas, effective from 1 January 2025. Elsewhere, Mohamed Braham was appointed deputy head of fixed income and currencies. He will begin his role on 6 January 2025 and be based in Paris.

The post People Moves Monday: Alana Capital, Katamaran Capital, SEC and more… appeared first on The TRADE.

Francisco Oliveira

Francisco Oliveira has been appointed co-head of global markets activities and head of fixed income and currencies, succeeding Sylvain Cartier. He joins from BNP Paribas and his move is effective as of 6 January 2025, reporting to Anne-Christine Champion and Alexandre Fleury, co-heads of global banking and investor solutions (GBIS). 

He was most recently co-head of global macro and global credit. In his new role London-based Oliveira will work alongside Hatem Mustapha, co-head of global markets activities and head of equities and equity derivatives. 

Elsewhere, New York-based Sylvain Cartier was appointed head of global markets for the Americas, effective from 1 January 2025. Cartier will report locally to Stephane About, chief executive for Societe Generale Americas, and globally to Francisco Oliveira and Hatem Mustapha. 

Mohamed Braham has been appointed deputy head of fixed income and currencies. He will begin his role on 6 January 2025 and be based in Paris. He will report to Francisco Oliveira and Hatem Mustapha.

Anne-Christine Champion and Alexandre Fleury, said: “These appointments illustrate our ambition to pursue the development of our fixed income activities and reaffirm our leadership in equities. 

“We are pleased to have Francisco Oliveira join our team. His 30 years of experience in global markets and his track record in fixed income are a strong fit for Societe Generale. Together with Hatem Mustapha, they will pursue the implementation of our ambitious roadmap for Global Markets and deliver best-in-class solutions for our clients.”

The post Societe Generale makes three new appointments to global markets team appeared first on The TRADE.

CCS trades have notable settlement risk exposure linked to the high value of the initial and final principal exchanges. Settling these trades on a gross bilateral basis also results in operational inefficiencies and liquidity constraints.

The CCS service can be used in conjunction with post-trade processing platform MarkitWire to integrate CCS flows into CLSSettlement, providing the ability for participants to benefit from multilateral netting against all FX transactions.

As a result, this leads to an optimisation of liquidity, alongside a reduction in daily funding requirements.

“We look forward to leveraging CLS’s CCS service to optimise liquidity and mitigate settlement risk,” said Pierre-Jean Benazech, global head cross CCY swaps trading at Société Générale. 

“The unique PvP settlement system and netting capabilities mark a positive step forward in our efforts to optimise our foreign exchange operations.”

Read more: Barclays connects to CLS’s cross currency swaps service

The service has experienced exponential growth, with the values of CCS submitted to CLSSettlement up 87% year-on-year in Q3 2024.

CLS added that the growth in its service also supports the efforts of policy makers and regulators who promote broader adoption of payment-versus-payment (PvP) mechanisms to reduce FX settlement risk and systemic risk in the OTC derivatives market.

“We are delighted that Société Générale has gone live on our CCS service. Participation in the service underscores its effectiveness in enhancing operational and liquidity efficiencies for CCS trades,” stated Lisa Danino-Lewis, chief growth officer at CLS.

“The growing adoption of this service as well as the growing values submitted indicate that FX market participants are actively pursuing innovative solutions to further reduce settlement risk and improve operational efficiency.”

The post Société Générale connects to CLS’s cross currency swaps service appeared first on The TRADE.

Nicholas Cunningham has been appointed as a senior banker in ECM. He will be focused on the industrial sector and financials sponsors.

Elsewhere, Ashish Sanghrajka has joined Soc Gen as senior banker in ECM, focused on healthcare and Thomas Feuerstein has relocated from the bank’s Parisian arm as senior banker in ECM focused on technology.

In addition to his sector focus, Feuerstein will also work to enhance connectivity for the bank’s European clients into the US equity capital markets, the memo confirmed.

David Getzler will remain in his current role as head of ECM US.

Cunningham, Sanghrajka, Feuerstein and Getzler will report to Jeff Mortara who joined Soc Gen in May from UBS as its global co-head of equity capital markets.

“Societe Generale Americas continues to enhance its equity value chain, combining top-tier equity research provided by Bernstein with industry leading execution, equity derivatives, prime brokerage and now, a considerably strengthened ECM capability,” said the memo.

“This offering provides our corporate, sponsors and private clients with important market insights and access to a broad range of equity, equity linked and derivatives markets.”

The post Societe Generale Americas expands equity capital markets team with three new hires appeared first on The TRADE.

Also appointed to join the rates trading team at Citi are Fiachra Harnett and Michele Beretta who join as a director and vice president respectively. In the US, Yun Zhou was appointed managing director in interest rate options trading based in New York. Zhou joins from Brevan Howard after a previous stint at Morgan Stanley in an interest rate trading focused role.

Societe Generale appointed Jeffrey Mortara as global co-head of equity capital markets, joining Luis Vas Pinto in leading the bank’s ECM objectives. Mortara joined from UBS, where he previously served as global co-head of equity capital markets, leading a team of equity and equity-linked individuals in the US, Europe and Asia. Before UBS, Mortara served at Deutsche Bank, where he built out the bank’s ECM practice in technology, media and telecoms (TMT) and financial institutions. While at Deutsche Bank, he also served as head of TMT banking, both in Silicon Valley and in Europe, based in London.

Dan Monckton, former EMEA head of program and electronic trading at Credit Suisse, joined Cantor Fitzgerald as co-head of EMEA electronic execution services. Prior to the move, Monckton spent two decades at Credit Suisse in a range of program trading related senior positions. His expertise includes managing algo, DMA and low latency cash and derivatives businesses as well as driving client coverage and product development. In his most recent position, he managed a total headcount of 30, including five managing directors, across four countries. Before this, he spent five and a half years at Morgan Stanley, working in program trading sales.

Former head of Asia Pacific at FactSet Research Systems, Vin Bhat, was appointed senior vice president and head of APAC at Charles River Development (CRD), a State Street company. In his new role, Bhat will be responsible for collaboration with front-to-back asset serving platform, State Street Alpha, as well as overseeing all business in the region. Prior to joining CRD, Bhat worked in various senior positions over 25 years, focused on sales, consulting, and engineering. Before joining FactSet, he spent a decade at Tata Consultancy Services.

Wematch.live appointed Grant Davies head of equities sales for the EMEA region, effective as of 15 May. Davies brings over two decades experience in securities finance to the firm, having held various leadership positions at EquiLend, JP Morgan and BlackRock. His expertise ranges across collateral management, ETF capital markets, securities lending, and total return swaps (TRS). Within the TRS space, Davies served as head of business development at Sunrise’s Matchbox, where he played a key role in launching and expanding the equity TRS platform.

The post People Moves Monday: Citi, Societe Generale, Cantor Fitzgerald and more… appeared first on The TRADE.

Based in New York, Mortara will report to Carl Bassili and Bruno Magnouat, co-heads of Societe Generale’s investment banking division within global banking and advisory, and regionally to Guido van Hauwermeiren, head of global bank and advisory for the Americas.

Mortara joins from UBS, where he previously served as global co-head of equity capital markets, leading a team of equity and equity-linked individuals in the US, Europe and Asia.

Before UBS, Mortara served at Deutsche Bank, where he built out the bank’s ECM practice in technology, media and telecoms (TMT) and financial institutions.

While at Deutsche Bank, he also served as head of TMT banking, both in Silicon Valley and in Europe, based London.

“Jeffrey’s appointment comes at an especially opportune time for Societe Generale following the launch of Bernstein and its top-ranked equity research and distribution capabilities which together with Societe Generale’s own strengths creates a powerful and fully integrated equities platform for our clients.” said Anne-Christine Champion, co-head of global banking and investor solutions.  

Read more: The new kid on the block – a closer look at ‘Bernstein’

“Together with their teams, Jeffrey and Luis will offer our clients a deeper and broader scope of equity capital markets advisory, leaning on our strong European footprint.”

The post Ex-UBS equity expert joins Societe Generale as new global co-head of equity capital markets appeared first on The TRADE.

The new JV is set to enable Societe Generale to offer clients a suite of global services across the equities value-chain, ranging from equity and macro research to agency execution, equity derivatives, prime brokerage and equity capital markets offerings.

“With high-quality research on over 1,000 stocks, Bernstein is a pure-play provider of trusted research and execution that helps investors generate insight, alpha and exceptional value for their clients around the world,” explained Hatem Mustapha, co-head of global markets activities at Societe Generale in a social media post last week. 

The team

The JV, first reported back in November 2022, is set to operate across 16 countries, with key hubs in: Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, New York, and Paris. Due to the global scale, the new entity has understandably led to a rejig of the operational set up at Societe Generale and AllianceBernstein only where there was a duplication of offerings.

Read more: AllianceBernstein and Societe Generale to partner on cash equities push

Combining these two entities across Europe meant that potentially hard decisions were on the table when it came to bringing the similar platforms and offerings together.

This combination was a particular focus when it came to research and trading, and primarily the case for the UK team, The TRADE understands. However, on the trading side disruption was reportedly minimal. 

The JV now has one unique trading team covering both high touch and low touch per region – in the US, Europe, and Asia, respectively.

In the US, most of this team hails from Alliance Bernstein, The TRADE has learnt, whilst in Asia and in Europe the teams are a 50/50 split of both Societe Generale and Alliance Bernstein’s existing teams.

In a joint announcement earlier this month, the two firms stated that the ultimate objective is for Societe Generale to eventually own 100% of both entities after five years with AllianceBernstein exiting – an arrangement which had been on the table since day one, The TRADE understands. 

Senior executives for the JV have already been announced, with previous chief executive of Bernstein Research Services, Robert van Brugge, having been named chief executive of Bernstein and Stephane Loiseau, previously head of Societe Generale’s cash equities business, appointed deputy chief executive.

The priorities

Speaking to The TRADE about the main focus for the JV going forward, Loiseau says that from Bernstein’s perspective, the priority is equity prime brokerage.

“It is definitely the biggest wallet in equities. When you look at the global picture, cash equities is a small sliver in comparison and currently the two are connected so now we’ll finally be in a position where we can build that as a product globally.”

Loiseau added that the joint venture provides the opportunity to be relevant globally and across the bigger sway of the equity chain.

“Societe Generale has obviously very strong expertise in derivatives. So, once you put these two things together (research and cash equities with equity derivatives and prime services) you have the scope and expertise to offer world class content (e.g. research) and a leading global trading platform.”

Read more: When it comes to desk set-ups, buy-siders are readjusting how derivatives fit in

The combination of the two offerings poses an important question as to the migration of the back office and trading systems.

Quant trading and algos are the key focus for the new entity going forward, The TRADE understands. Bernstein’s setup is based on Societe Generale providing clearing and settlement services, however, both firms’ trading systems are set to be kept in place for the time being.

A review process is expected over the coming months and years.

“Certainly, operating two trading platforms is not necessarily the best from a cost perspective. But, with this approach, we’ll be able to do that with full knowledge about the advantages and disadvantages of each platform […] We feel that keeping the two IT stacks was the best option to minimise disruption for clients,” explains Loiseau.

In terms of the JV’s technological focus for the time being, algos are the key focal point. Bernstein is aiming to grow their footprint and reportedly plans are in place to launch two algo stacks in the next couple of months.

Furthermore, Loiseau tells The TRADE that one of the key strategic differentiators for Bernstein will be from the quant trading perspective. The firms intend to leverage their newly combined large team of quants and developers – “we’re much more relevant than each entity was separately”.

The clientele

While AllianceBernstein and Societe Generale had a previously extensive overlap in their offerings , when it comes to client-base, there is notably much less commonality between the two businesses.

While AllianceBernstein typically services long-only traditional funds, Societe Generale’s client base has historically focused more on the quantitative and hedge fund type firm. 

Speaking to the geographical reach, Loiseau shares that during the analysis stage, the firms did not see client overlaps in the same geography with some instances demonstrating that Societe Generale did European business with one client while AllianceBernstein covered the US and Asian business already: “We didn’t see a great deal of overlap from the client perspective and weren’t really sharing clients on the same product.” 

When it comes to the global footprint, geographically, the key areas of focus for expansion are Asia, The Middle East and North Africa, The TRADE understands.

Read more: AllianceBernstein becomes latest buy-side to set up shop in the Dubai International Financial Centre

“The two client bases are very complementary in terms of where we want to grow. First and foremost, it is about making sure that we cross sell to these various client bases,” concluded Loiseau.

The post The new kid on the block – a closer look at ‘Bernstein’ appeared first on The TRADE.

Val Wotton

The introduction of CTM’s new workflow aims to streamline trade communications among hedge funds, prime brokers and executing brokers. By integrating CTM’s tri-party matching functionalities, the platform standardises and automates the delivery of hedge fund trade files, supporting real-time communication of trade details and fostering smooth trade processing flows.

“Right from the start we were excited to be part of the initiative. CTM’s tri-party matching workflow provides a much-needed solution in the prime brokerage space that improves post-trade processing workflows,” said Andrew Daponte at Societe Generale.

“The service integrates CTM into the prime broker environment, which increases efficiency, capacity and the client experience on the platform.”

The new workflow utilises CTM’s automated central matching functionality to furnish prime brokers with a definitive record of transaction details upon a trade match between a hedge fund and an executing broker, introducing real-time standardisation and automation to the trade allocation process.

Other key features include synchronising automation of the trade communication to all prime brokers, automating real-time trade notifications, identifying prime broker recipients via a golden source SSI database, and enhancing transactions in CTM with ALERT SSIs, promoting increased settlement instruction transparency. Additionally, the workflow provides a golden trade copy that has been pre-matched by the hedge fund and executing broker.

Val Wotton, managing director and general manager of DTCC institutional trade processing, said: “It is exciting to see Societe Generale’s adoption of CTM tri-party workflow capabilities, a critical enabler of accelerating settlement as it automates the communication of golden trade copy to prime brokers as soon as a match between the hedge fund and executing broker takes place within the CTM platform.”

The post Société Générale goes live on DTCC’s CTM tri-party trade matching workflow appeared first on The TRADE.

Named Bernstein, the move follows the original announcement to form the joint venture in November 2022.

Read more – AllianceBernstein and Societe Generale to partner on cash equities push

Bernstein will provide institutional investors, corporates and financial institutions with investment insights into North America, European and Asia Pacific equity markets, alongside liquidity access and global trading technology.

The joint venture will enable Societe Generale to offer its clients a suite of global services across the equities value-chain, ranging from equity and macro research to agency execution, equity derivatives, prime brokerage and equity capital markets offerings.

With over 750 employees serving clients worldwide, Bernstein is organised under two separate legal vehicles with a head office in New York which will cover North America, as well as a head office in London, covering Europe and Asia. This will also be complemented by major hubs in Paris and Hong Kong, and various regional offices.

In a joint statement the two firms stated that the ultimate objective is for Societe Generale to eventually own 100% of both entities after five years.

“With Bernstein, a new leader is emerging in cash equities,” said Slawomir Krupa, chief executive of Societe Generale.

“This joint venture illustrates Societe Generale’s capability to develop innovative pathways to further expand our client offering as we increase our value proposition for the benefit of our investor and issuer clients, leverage synergies within our Group, and grow our revenues sustainably.”

Previous chief executive of Bernstein Research Services, Robert van Brugge, has been appointed chief executive of Bernstein.

Elsewhere, Stephane Loiseau, previously head of Societe Generale’s cash equities business, has been appointed deputy CEO of Bernstein.

“Bernstein’s mission has a foundation rooted in servicing clients with best-in-class research and insights,” said Seth Bernstein, chief executive of AllianceBernstein.

“Through this joint venture, Bernstein can continue to build out a cash equities and research business that seeks to set the standard for delivering global investment expertise and an even stronger set of products and services for global clients.”

The closing of the transaction has been approved by the relevant regulatory and antitrust authorities.

The post Societe Generale and AllianceBernstein launch cash equities and research joint venture appeared first on The TRADE.