Outsourced dealing desk BTON Financial has hired two senior executives to meet growing buy-side demand for its services, including a veteran hedge fund technology head.
Charles Phan has been appointed chief technology officer at BTON Financial, bringing 15 years of hedge fund and buy-side experience as a former quant strategist and trader. He will oversee the firm’s technology strategy and delivery.
Also joining BTON Financial is Caroline Holmes, who joins the outsourced dealing desk as head of business development acting as a conduit between clients, technology and sales teams for onboarding of asset managers.
Holmes has two decades experience working with asset managers, having previously held senior roles with investment managers including Columbia Threadneedle, Principal Global Investors, BT Pension Scheme Management, Hermes and BMO GAM. She is also considered an expert in Brexit and MiFID II.
CEO and co-founder of BTON Financial, Dan Shepherd, commented that due to the coronavirus pandemic, the outsourced trading firm has seen an uptick in interest from asset managers that are looking to outsourced execution.
“We have seen increased demand for our outsourced dealing desk services as a result of recent events, their impact on the market and on operating models,” he said. “The asset management community is evaluating workflow automation and innovative ways to execute their trading strategies, increasingly calling on us to support their efforts to automate, maintain a competitive advantage and deliver returns to their end clients.”
Major custodian banks have also reported a surge in demand for outsourced trading services due to the global coronavirus crisis for various reasons, ranging from moving into a new asset classes or trading strategy.