Ritchotte spent over two decades at Deutsche Bank where he was a member of the management board and group executive committee acting as chief operating officer and chief digital officer. Departing the giant German bank in late 2016, Richotte has since set up his own fintech fund, RitMir Ventures to invest in products and services transforming finance through disruptive regulatory and technology driven business models.

Cobalt is among a clutch of firms bidding to use shared ledger technology to drive down reconiciliation costs and improve operations in the post-trade space. The firm's platform, set up by by currency trading veterans Andy Coyne and Adrian Patten, delivers a private peer-to-peer network that aims to slash back office costs in FX markets by providing a single, shared view of a transaction to trading cunterparties.

Set to launch later this year, there are currently 22 beta participants on Cobalt’s peer-to-peer network including Citi, which became a Cobalt investor in 2016, and technology partners including SETL, First Derivatives and Tradepoint. Citadel Securities and XTX Markets have been lined up as launch partners for the live implementation.

Say Ritchotte: “There has been comparatively little investment in post-trade over the past few decades. Cobalt’s network is an elegant solution that provides significant benefits for users and will reshape the industry as we know it. I look forward to working with the leadership team on their fresh approach to the post-trade challenges shared by all FX participants.”

Richotte joins a distinguished team of former Wall Street heavyweights on Cobalt's board, including Charlotte Crosswell, former Nasdaq NLX CEO, who signed up as a strategic advisor in December 2016.