Pankil Patel has joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as head of electronic trading services for equities, options and futures in the Americas, according to several traders. Patel is on so-called garden leave until July 5. He spent 13 years at Credit Suisse, where he was most recently Americas co-head of advanced execution services, before leaving in March. He follows the recent departure of Dan Mathisson, who was the firm’s head of U.S. equity trading and is credited with launching Crossfinder, a leading dark pool.

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Thomas Kalafatis is reportedly leaving CIBC World Markets in Toronto. Kalafatis has been head of prime services at CIBC since 2010; he joined the bank in 2008 as head of business strategy and development, following six years in sales and trading at exchange operator TSX Group. Kalafatis helped propel CIBC from a laggard in equity electronic trading to a top position with a 25% national market share.

“I’ve known Thomas Kalafatis for a long time, and he is second to none when it comes to electronic trading and market structure in Canada,” said Mohan Virdee, CEO and Founder at Markets Media, which holds the annual Canadian Trading and Investing Summit in Toronto. “He has been a strong advocate for not only CIBC, but for promoting Canadian markets to market participants elsewhere in the Americas and in Europe. I wish Thomas continued success.”

Robert Cancelli, managing director and a nine-year CIBC veteran, will take over Kalafatis’ position on an interim basis.

Cowen has hired former Global Prime pro Kevin LoPrimo to lead its prime brokerage business in Europe and Asia. LoPrimo is charged with starting a new international desk and hiring a team of traders by year-end. Mini-prime Cowen already offers this service through a 15-strong team in the U.S. He reports to Mike Rosen and Jack Seibald, global co-heads of Cowen’s prime brokerage business.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing has appointed Lee Kwok Keung Roger, head of markets, as chief executive officer of the Stock Exchange Market of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Futures Exchange. At HKFE, he replaces Romnesh Lamba as CEO. Roger was promoted to head of markets in January 2016, with responsibilities for cash and derivatives trading, market data and market surveillance functions.

Tim Reilly, ITG’s head of U.S. electronic sales, has left the firm, according to an internal company memo. The memo, sent by ITG CEO Frank Troise, said Reilly’s departure follows a “significant evaluation of our structure.” Ronnie Rodericks and Chris Ross, who reported to Reilly, will now report to Troise, according to the memo. The role of Jamie Selway, a managing director, will expand to include overseeing portfolio and single-stock trading. Reilly came from Citi in 2014, where he was head of electronic execution sales and previously led the U.S. alternative execution group and the U.S. portfolio sales trading desk. He started his career at Salomon Brothers in 1993.

BondWave, a financial technology company and registered investment advisor, appointed Tony Miscimarra as managing director of business development, a new position. Miscimarra will be charged with managing and growing revenue and infrastructure to elevate the firm’s presence in the industry, as well as to educate traders and advisors in preparation for a launch of a suite of new solutions planned for early 2017. He came from Tradeweb Direct where he served as managing director since 2014. Previously, he was CEO of Fixed Income Solutions LLC and also held senior roles with BondDesk Group, Instinet Fixed Income and UBS Securities. He began his career as a bond trader before transitioning to sales.

Stuart Deel-Smith, who previously served as head of market structure and product development at NLX, where he developed its TED Spread order book, joined derivatives consultancy firm Vanna Consulting.

Previous Trading Up columns:

• TRADING UP: KCG Snags Fusco and Minchin from CS; Nasdaq Names Ptasznik CFO
• TRADING UP: Auerbach Grayson Snags Six from KCG; Stockland Joins IEX
• TRADING UP: Instinet Names Govoni, Parsons to Senior Roles; Waddell CEO to Retire

Featured image by treety/Dollar Photo Club

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