Baton Systems (“Baton”), the fintech transforming asset movements and settlements with solutions based on distributed ledger technology, has announced the appointment of Jerome Kemp as the company’s President.
Kemp joins the rapidly-growing business at a crucial time as demand for fully digital market infrastructures across the entire post-trade process accelerates. He brings 35 years’ experience in scaling businesses in the cleared derivatives space, with a track record of driving innovation to deliver transformational impact.
Prior to joining Baton, Kemp was Global Head of Futures, OTC Clearing, and FX Prime Brokerage at Citi, where he built the cleared derivatives business to a position of global leadership. Kemp was also Chair of the Futures Industry Association (FIA) Board from 2018 to 2020, where he earned a reputation as a visionary and thought leader in how the market’s infrastructure needs to be transformed to keep pace with the evolving needs of global market participants.
Kemp will lead Baton’s growth across markets, leveraging valuable international experience gained in senior leadership positions held in Paris, London and Tokyo during his career. In addition to his most recent role at Citi, Kemp previously spent 18 years at J.P. Morgan, where he rose to Global Co-Head of the Futures and Options and OTC Clearing business.
Kemp will work closely with Baton Founder and CEO, Arjun Jayaram, in his new role.
Arjun Jayaram, Founder and CEO of Baton Systems, said: “I’m delighted that Jerome is taking up this leadership role at such a crucial time for Baton. Having a practitioner with Jerome’s exceptional calibre, wealth of experience and vision helping to drive Baton forward will prove invaluable as we scale to meet market needs - it will ensure we continue to place our clients at the very core of all we do. I look forward to working with Jerome to accelerate our growth plans globally.”
Commenting on his appointment, Jerome Kemp said: “Baton is delivering today what I believe will become the new global standard for payments and settlements - it’s hugely exciting and I am proud and humbled to have been asked by Arjun to step into this leadership role. Today, post-trade processing is slow, opaque, restrictive, and costly. Baton is revolutionising the entire front to back process, from trade matching through to settlement - allowing settlement participants to take control with automated workflows, access to real-time information, and on-demand settlement. Baton is ultimately defining the infrastructure that will underpin the markets of tomorrow.”
Kemp’s appointment follows the news earlier this month that former Basel Committee Secretary General, William Coen, had joined Baton as a Senior Advisor.
Baton’s solutions are now being used by a number of large financial institutions, including G-SIBs, to facilitate the movement of billions of dollars of cash and securities on a daily basis. Baton enables transparent, flexible and friction-free post-trade processing, addressing the significant challenges posed by the prevalence of the industry’s existing server-based infrastructures that result in prolonged settlement exposure, high funding costs and significant liquidity challenges.