Brokerage giant ICAP PLC shook up its electronic-trading
business, handing the chief executive of its computerized
currencies-trading platform responsibility over the company's
BrokerTec fixed-income business.
The move expands the role of Gil Mandelzis, head of ICAP's EBS
currency-trading business, and unseats BrokerTec's chief executive,
Seth Johnson, from that role. Mr. Johnson has worked at ICAP for
more than 20 years.
ICAP said it is combining EBS and BrokerTec under Mr. Mandelzis,
though the platforms will continue to operate separately. EBS's
current development chief, Richard Kerschner, was named interim CEO
of BrokerTec.
ICAP said Mr. Johnson will remain on the company's global
executive-management committee, a group of senior managers
responsible for guiding strategy and overseeing performance
firmwide. Mr. Johnson and ICAP have discussed another potential
role for him, but nothing has been decided, a person familiar with
the matter said. Mr. Johnson couldn't be reached for comment.
Mr. Mandelzis joined ICAP when it acquired Traiana, a post-trade
processor, in 2007 and was named chief executive of EBS in
2012.
This management shake-up reflects broader restructuring moves at
London-based ICAP, which has a big U.S. operation based in Jersey
City, N.J., and is the largest of firms known as interdealer
brokers, which handle trades between banks.
That focus itself is expanding as ICAP branches out to handle
more trades directly with asset managers such as hedge funds,
pension funds and insurers, without necessarily involving
banks.
The company, like its brokerage-firm rivals, has been slashing
expenses to cope with decreased trading volumes and belt-tightening
by banks and other customers. It has spent money to increase its
business in areas such as interest-rate swaps trading.
One of the company's big pushes has been through its EBS Direct
currencies-trading platform launched in late 2012. The so-called
"lit" market allows clients to view competing buy and sell prices
from multiple dealers, in contrast with the anonymity of its
flagship foreign-exchange platform called EBS Market, where volumes
have shrunk sharply from their 2008 peaks.
ICAP executives hope EBS Direct can make up for some of that
lost trading volume, and they say the EBS Direct model that can be
applied to parts of the fixed-income business. Discussions about
combining EBS with BrokerTec, a leading electronic-trading platform
for U.S. Treasuries that also trades European government bonds,
have been happening for months, according to people familiar with
the matter, and along with other changes have led to jockeying for
power among executives and divisions of the firm.
Earlier this year, Mr. Mandelzis named a new head of EBS Market,
and the company pressed voice brokers to direct trades to the
electronic platform.
ICAP's chief executive, Michael Spencer, and his deputies have
cut hundreds of jobs once held by voice brokers--who take orders
and execute trades manually by phone or computer--while expanding
electronic-trading services and technology that helps clients gauge
risks and the profitability of trades.
In a statement Thursday, Mr. Spencer said EBS Direct has had
"exceptional volume growth" and that combining EBS and BrokerTec
will help ICAP attract new clients.
Write to Jenny Strasburg at jenny.strasburg@wsj.com
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