Veteran FXDD dealer Sascha Szyfman leaves Bank of America, becomes Associate at Goldman Sachs

From the 7th World Trade Center to the heart of Wall Street, Sascha Szyfman, whose illustrious career includes three years at New York based retail FX brokerage FXDD has been appointed Associate at Goldman Sachs.

Two years ago, Mr. Szyfman left FXDD, his final position with the company having been Manager of German Department where he was responsible for managing the German customer support desk at FXDD, and ensuring that material was presented to clients in German-speaking markets in an effective manner.

Mr. Szyfman also managed the FX Options desk, overseeing the department during the period of time which the Dodd-Frank Act was invoked, where Mr. Szyfman was responsible for producing reports in compliance with the Dodd-Frank Act and its European counterpart, EMIR.

During his tenure within the FX Options desk, Mr. Szyfman’s responsibilities included the management of risk, trade execution, and liquidity for a-book order flow, including 30+ FX pairs and Gold & Silver, along with resolving settlement, trade allocation issues with all counterparties and prime brokerages.

A year at FXDD’s dealing desk completed Mr. Szyfman’s tenure at the prominent North American brokerage at a time when the firm made its exit from the US market and transferred its North American client base to FXCM, setting the scene for his foray into the interbank sector with an executive position at Bank of America.

Two years have passed since Mr. Szyfman joined Bank of America as Vice President of Product Control Professional GT&O, a period during which he oversaw product control within the Global Technology and Operations division of the bank, a business unit within which Bank of America invested significant resources four years ago in order to place an emphasis on risk management as a result of the emergence of new banking technologies.

Having now moved on to Goldman Sachs as Associate, Mr. Szyfman will undergo a further development stage in his career, increasing his providence within the banking sector.

Associates at Goldman Sachs are the subject of a three and a half year development program, during which exposure to several transactions across multiple sectors, regions and products creates a basis for preparation for senior deal management.

Mr. Szyfman entered the banking sector from the retail FX business at a very interesting time, as it followed Bank of America’s investment in incresing its FinTech orientated approach toward risk management and the ability to maintain a foothold in the development of systems that keep the company in the forefront of banking technology.

Four years ago, a full two years before Mr. Szyfman joined Bank of America, encumbent Global Technology and Operations Executive Cathy Bessant had focused on the bank’s need to ensure that its operations become more lean and efficient moving forward, and in doing so the technology and operations team must to play a vital role in Bank of America’s objective to simplify and modernize the company.

In the summer of 2012, Bank of America was engaged in the process of reducing the number of data centers on which it relied, and had a goal to reduce the number of applications it uses by 50 percent by 2014. “It’s not just about reduction,” Ms. Bessant stated at the time. “It’s about changing work process so things can be done more reliably and efficiently.”

Ms. Bessant and her team were also charged with the task of reducing risk and enabling the business strategies of the company while pursuing efficiency where possible. That mentality has spurred an overarching philosophy of “bringing tech and ops together,” stated Ms. Bessant. “I describe it as: If the clients are the heart of the company, we’re the spine. What we do is highly complicated and large-scale, but it’s really important to keep the whole system moving and keep it functioning.”