Barclays seeks to boost e-trading innovation
Barclays has made its intentions clear with a new face to lead its innovation plans in the world of electronic trading.
In the newly-created role, the bank has appointed Justin Brickwood as MD, head of markets innovation, based in London. He will join in September and will report to John Stecher, chief innovation officer.
Brickwood will be responsible for driving innovation across markets’ electronic offerings and improving its internal platforms.
He will partner with colleagues across markets and technology, and the bank reveals an interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to make things better. There are no more specifics but it will be good to see where this development takes the bank.
Brickwood previously worked at Goldman Sachs for more than 20 years where he served most recently as head of EMEA Equities Electronic Trading Engineering as part of the equities execution services desk.
Barclays also reminds us of its overall focus on digitalisation announced by CEO Jes Staley in its Q3 2017 earnings. In June 2018 it made three other appointments within its corporate and investment bank to up its digital game in markets business.
The idea of a bank creating a new role to lead innovation (or whatever) is nothing new of course.
Away from the UK, and in a cleaner, more civilised and less congested part of Europe – i.e. the Nordics – Danske Bank recently opened the throttle for new fintech partnerships.
With a new strategy in place, the bank says partnerships are “top of the agenda as a strong lever for future growth and joint value creation”.
To that end, it’s recruiting for a partnership engagement manager for fresh action in the Nordics and for its “new super-team”.
