Hans-Ole Jochumsen, head of Global Market Services at Nasdaq OMX, expects to set the strategy for his new unit by the summer.

Nasdaq OMX said in a statement yesterday that it had formed Global Market Services,which includes transactions, clearing and settlement services in US and Europe, and named Jochumsen, previously executive vice president, transaction services Nordics,to lead the business.

Jochumsen takes over responsibilities from Eric Noll, executive vice president of US and UK transaction services, who left the exchange last year to become chief executive of broker ConvergEx.

Jochumsen told Markets Media: “I have the opportunity to set a global strategy and my priority is to build the organisation with the the right technology and infrastructure. I should have a better picture around the summer.”

In his new role Jochumsen reports directly to Bob Greifeld, chief executive of Nasdaq OMX.

“As markets have become increasingly global in asset classes like fixed income, currency and commodities and in the OTC clearing space, we believe it is an opportune time to structure our transaction business in such a way that takes advantage of these opportunities,” Greifeld said in a statement. “Hans-Ole has exhibited tremendous leadership, and his background and experience spans virtually every asset class. His global perspective and outstanding track record will help take our transaction businesses to the next level.”

In his previously role Jochumsen led eight independent exchanges offering trading and clearing for Nordic and Baltic shares, futures, options and fixed income products. He was also responsible for Nasdaq OMX Commodities, which includes trading and clearing financial products on the Nordic power exchange and he oversaw Broker Services, which provided back office and custody services for Nordic clients.

“In the Nordic and Blatic markets I was used to dealing with complexity and different asset classes and cultures,” added Jochumsen. “I also have strong understanding of technology integrations and knowledge of settlements.”

Prior to the merger between Nasdaq and OMX, Jochumsen was president of OMX with reponsibilities for information services, integrating and developing the Baltic markets and cultivating OMX business central Europe.

Before OMX Jochumsen was president and chief executive of Copenhagen Stock Exchange between 1998 and 2006 and led its merger with the Stockholm exchanges.

This month Stockholm-based Nasdaq OMX Clearing became the first central counterparty in Europe to be authorised as compliant with European Market Infrastructure Regulation, ahead of larger rivals. The authorisation allows the clearer to file with regulators to launch new clearing products, which rivals cannot do until they receive EMIR authorisation.

“I will consider utilising our European clearing house in the US which should be easier than in the past with the increased cooperation between regulators,” added Jochumsen. “This will depend on our final strategy and customer demand.”

He said the integration of Nasdaq OMX’s latest acquisition, NOS Clearing, will be completed on April 17. The Norwegian firm clears freight and seafood products which will be offered to the exchange’s global client base.

“For the time being my plate is full and I am not looking at acquisitions,” added Jochumsen. “In the longer-term, deals are in Nasdaq’s DNA but they would have to be relevant acquisitions at the right time.”

In the short-term Jochumsen will also not be looking at Asia, a focus for rivals such as Deutsche Borse and IntercontinentalExchange. Jochumsen said his priority will be on fixed income, currency and commodities rather than cash equities.

“In fixed income we have three different platforms and we will be talking to customers about what they need and in commodities we do not have a global solution,” he said.

In fixed income Nasdaq OMX has the eSpeed electronic trading platform for trading US Treasury Securities it acquired last year; NLX, the European derivatives exchange which launched last year and a Nordic platform for fixed income products in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.

Jochumsen added: “We have had a lot of inbound calls about foreign exchange sand we are talking to global players about doing something in the US and Europe.”

Over the past year Nasdaq OMX has reorganized other businesses to form new global entities. The exchange combined data and indexing to form Global Information Services and also put together market technology and corporate solutions to form Global Technology Solutions.