BondDesk, the leading provider of retail fixed income trading technology and execution services, today announced it has appointed Kim Bang as Chief Executive Officer.
A founding member and former CEO and President of Bloomberg Tradebook, Mr. Bang most recently held the position of COO of EMEA and Asia Pacific for Bloomberg Enterprise Products and Solutions.
Based out of BondDesk's New York office, Mr. Bang will work to further BondDesk's efforts to make the retail fixed income markets more transparent and accessible through innovative solutions for broker-dealers, correspondent clearers and online brokers. Bang's experience in founding, developing and turning Bloomberg Tradebook into one of the industry's premier electronic trading platforms is expected to contribute greatly toward BondDesk's efforts to bring further innovation to the fixed income markets. Founded in 1999, BondDesk introduced one of the first electronic venues for fixed income execution, the BondDesk ATS (Alternative Trading System), which currently executes over 20,000 transactions a day.
"Kim is an absolutely perfect fit to lead BondDesk on its mission to revolutionize the retail fixed income market through technological advancement and strong, strategic industry leadership," commented BondDesk Chairman Howard Edelstein. "Kim's wealth of experience and impressive track record of pushing the innovation envelope will serve BondDesk and its customers extremely well. I look forward to working closely with Kim to take BondDesk to the next level of success."
Mr. Bang joined Bloomberg Tradebook as a founding member in April 1996. He assumed the responsibility of President in December 1999 and the title of CEO in April 2004. During his tenure, Bloomberg Tradebook became one of the leading electronic execution platforms in the market, serving institutional investors globally with comprehensive front-to-back execution, clearance and settlement solutions across multiple asset classes.
During his tenure with Bloomberg, Bang led a multitude of initiatives to bring new technologies and advancements to market. Among them were the developmentnt of the first institutional consolidated limit order book and outbound smart order sweeping technology in 1998; the launch of Powermatch, Bloomberg's electronic energy brokerage system, in 2000; the introduction in 2002 of a Commission Management Service featuring third-party Independent Research commission sharing agreements; and the establishment of the first centralized FX ECN for execution, clearing and settlement in 2007. Bang also drove the expansion of Bloomberg Tradebook to international markets and negotiated a number of partnerships to establish clearing relationships, introducing broker arrangements, and distribution of third-party technologies such as execution management systems and anonymous block trading execution venues.
Prior to joining Bloomberg, Mr. Bang was President of Futech Capital Management, a hedge fund managing quantitative derivative trading strategies for institutional clients. Before founding Futech in 1993, he developed a European foreign exchange cross trading business for American International Group Trading Corp. From 1988-90, he traded fixed income derivatives for Commerzbank in Luxembourg. His prior sales trading experience includes positions at BankAmerica Futures and Drexel Burnham Lambert.
"The opportunity to join BondDesk and help lead one of the most innovative companies in the fixed income market was impossible to pass up," said Bang. "This market is ripe for further automation and technological advancement and BondDesk is already leading that charge. I am excited to help accelerate that effort even further and cement the company's reputation as the clear leader and agent of change in the retail fixed income space."