GreySpark Partners, a business, management and technology consultancy specialising in capital markets, has expanded its Asia Pacific operations with the opening of its first Australian office in Sydney.
GreySpark Partners Australia will provide institutional investors and banks in Australia and across the Asia Pacific region with consulting services in areas such as risk management, electronic trading and market structure.
The Sydney office will also act as GreySpark's Asia Pacific advisory hub for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives clearing. The $600 trillion global OTC derivatives market is already being transformed by sweeping new regulatory reforms, with the introduction of the Dodd Frank Act in the United States and the European Union's European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) which will impact market participants globally. GreySpark will leverage the expertise it has gained in the US and Europe with financial institutions in the Asia Pacific region.
Founded in London in 2009, GreySpark advises leading global investment banks, hedge funds and asset management firms on their approaches to electronic trading, risk and data management solutions. The firm has grown to over 70 consultants globally, and Sydney has become the newest hub in APAC after Hong Kong (2011) and Singapore (2012).
The Australia team will be led by Managing Director Braian Szwarcberg-Poch, who has returned from London where he helped establish and distribute Barclays' OTC client clearing offering across the UK and Europe. Malavika Shekar, Senior Consultant, will assist him in growing the business's delivery organisation. Shekar previously led a number of programmes in the global OTC clearing team at JP Morgan in London.
Braian Szwarcberg-Poch said, "The significant changes to regulation in the US and EU in relation to clearing, trade reporting and wider OTC reform bring multiple challenges to market participants in Australia and across the Asia Pacific region. Our objective is to bring GreySpark's expertise in e-trading and market structure advisory services to enable clients to deal with regulatory change more efficiently and effectively.''
LLeading with an OTC clearing broker due diligence, selection and implementation service to support institutional investors and regional banks GreySpark is establishing itself as a leader in this space.
"Many regulators in the Asia Pacific region have opted for a wait-and-see approach to OTC regulation. With initiatives such as EMIR and Dodd Frank now well underway there is a real need from market participants in this region to be up to speed with global regulations affecting the domestic marketplace," said Szwarcberg-Poch.