Saxo Bank, the online investment bank, has appointed Steven Braithwaite as Director, global head of foreign exchange and fixed income, a role formerly filled by Claus Nielsen, who has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer for trading, in charge of geographical co-ordination.
"Steven is a highly qualified industry professional, who brings with him to the role many years experience in FX trading and sales in Tokyo, London and Singapore, and we are delighted that he joins us," comments Charles-Henri Sabet, Saxo Bank Global head of trading and senior executive director on the appointment. "We also take the opportunity to congratulate Claus Nielsen who will be charged with overseeing the geographical co-ordination of all of Saxo Bank's global trading activities."
Mr Braithwaite comes to Saxo Bank following a long career in FX, including his last role as managing director, head of FX Trading and Sales, Singapore for Royal Bank of Canada where he also held a number of related trading roles since 1994. Previously, he worked for Nomura Bank International Plc, HSBC and EBCO Amro Bank.
The new hire and creation of the COO trading role reflect a change in the bank's structure, to enhance professionalism and integration of all of the Bank's activities and services together with front office risk management and quantitative analysis.
"Our approach to building up Saxo Bank's global reach, is partly in ensuring greater co-ordination between all of our business lines: foreign exchange, fixed income, options and derivatives and equities and futures, together with our services: IT, Marketing, business and legal," says Mr. Sabet. "To do so, we need to strive for even greater professionalism, and as such we have elected to create and appoint a COO for trading and it was essential to follow this up by hiring someone of Steven's caliber to take over day to day FX and fixed income management."
The structural change underscores the growing regionalisation of Saxo Bank and the commitment to extending professionalism and seamless integration of all business practices, together with risk management.
"A function of COO is implemented at the global level of trading and the Bank's business lines to ensure co-ordination between all of Saxo Bank's services. With a host of new offices and regional hubs in place, this new structure will be indispensible," adds Mr Sabet.
Mr Braithwaite, who takes up the role from 18 February onwards, will be based in Saxo Bank's Copenhagen office where he will manage a team of 15 and will answer to Mr Sabet. His responsibilities include overseeing all aspects of business for the Bank's Foreign exchange and Fixed income divisions.