3rd largest FX dealer Barclays lets four fundamental and pioneering FX senior executives go
Barclays has made four pioneering senior executives in its eFX division redundant, all of whom were pioneers of Barclays’ now dominant FX enterprise and all of whom have extensive service with the company, in some cases inventing some of the framework that is now in widespread use in the interbank sector.
Barclays Bank, the third largest interbank FX dealer by market share with 8.11% of the world’s FX order flow being handled by the financial giant, has made some significant redundancies at senior executive level within its eFX division, all of which have spent vast proportions of their careers at the company.
Four senior executives have left the firm, those being Marek Robertson, Marcello Cavalcanti, Vince O’Sullivan and Martin Richards, all of whom were asked to clear their desks at the end of July this year.
Mr. Robertson was Head of eFX Sales, and Head of eFICC Sales for Europe, having joined the company in 2002, his redundancy last week putting an end to some fourteen and a half years service with the bank.
Mr. Robertson joined Barclays as Chief Operating Officer, Global FX, a position he held from 2002 until 2006 before being promoted to lead the firm’s FX Liquidity Solutions division for two years.
In 2010, Mr. Robertson became Head of eFICC Sales for Europe, and in 2012 he assumed the additional responsibility of leading the eFX Sales division at Managing Director level.
An industry veteran with almost 30 years of experience, Mr. Robertson spent 11 years at Bankers Trust Australia before joining Barclays Bank.
Mr. Cavalcanti is the second of the four to be let go, signaling the end of a twelve and a half year tenure at Barclays Capital as Managing Director and Head of FX Banks Sales for Europe.
Mr. Cavalcanti joined Barclays in January 2004 from Merrill Lynch where he was VP Derivatives Sales.
Guildford-based Vince O’Sullivan has also departed after a remarkable 38 years at Barclays.
Mr. O’Sullivan started at Barclays in 1978 as a foreign exchange cashier, before moving onto the FX trading desk at what was then one of the biggest FX banks in London.
With responsibility for spot yen, O’Sullivan was one of the key traders on the desk and worked through some of the more dramatic market events such as Black Friday, the Plaza and Louvre Accords – all of which produced what was then almost unprecedented market volatility.
In 1994, his knowledge and communication skills were recognised by Barclays and he moved into hedge fund sales, a role he held for the next four years.
A brief sojourn to the currency management side in 1998 preceded a return to Barclays with the task of helping to set up the bank’s electronic platform, Fox, the predecessor to BARX, for which Mr. O’Sullivan was responsible for the design.
Mr. Richards, who has spent 26 years at Barclays at Director level within the firm’s investment banking and FX hedge fund divisions also turned the office light out for the first time at the end of last month.
What is remarkable here is that the four executives that have now departed are some of the bank’s eFX pioneers, having a vast amount of experience behind them and very long tenures at the firm indeed.
