Welcome
...to the 50th edition of House, which suggests that we have been producing these monthly updates for over 5 years now!
Arion House is actually 5 years 4 months old, so we have missed a couple of months somewhere. An internal investigation is underway and we are seeking whistleblowers to inform on which months were missed out!
We are not into anniversaries, but thanks to everyone that has supported us in the last 5 years, it’s been a lot of fun and we hope we have been able to provide a little bit of insight to you every month.
The delays brought on by the summer lull, Brexit hesitation, Trade War schism and Hong Kong protests seem to be coming to an end and we have had several clients come to us this month sounding more upbeat about hiring across Asia Pacific.
The two big global moves this month include Noah Perlman leaving Morgan Stanley to join the Crypto exchange set up by the Winklevoss twins formerly of facebook fame. A fascinating move and maybe a sign of things to come in global finance...At the other end of the spectrum, Francois Jourdain, formerly Global Head of Compliance at Barclays has joined Deutsche Bank as their Head of Treasury Markets and Investment.
This month’s themes include the regulation of the crypto market and WhatsApp - the fightback.
The regulation of the crypto market...
I would be lying if I said I fully understood crypto or even had any idea how it worked, but what I do know is that crypto firms are hiring compliance officers. Noah Perlman joining Gemini from Morgan Stanley this month was a fascinating hire. We also saw Lim Mei, formerly a senior regulator at the Monetary Authority of Singapore join crypto exchange iSTOX
It follows similar moves in Asia last year that saw Angelina Kwan join Bitmex from the Hong Kong Exchange and Benedicte Nolens join Circle.
The Crypto market is looking to legitimise and they are willing to spend their riches on getting the best people. Will this be an outlet for the rapidly reducing investment banking compliance teams? We think so, in this increasingly digital and more geopolitically uncertain environment, digital assets will increase in relevance. A note of caution though in that both Kwan and Nolens left after a short period of time, suggesting that all was not well once they got to look under the bonnet.
An interesting year ahead for crypto and one which we are sure will see more regulatory hiring.
WhatsApp - YOU ARE NO LONGER SAFE
WhatsApp - the most taboo subject for investment banking compliance officers. Billions have been spent on surveillance systems, analysing everything bankers say and do by phone, text and email. Chatrooms have been banned, social media sites and vigorous Chinese Walls put in place.
However, one bastion of free speech existed, the encrypted messenger service - WhatsApp. It’s common knowledge that most bankers now communicate solely by this method and it is the bain of compliance officers, as they cannot get access to this communication. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel as we have recently seen several high profile cases where the WhatsApp Army has been defeated.
Mike Walters, ironically the former head of group compliance at Barclays, has been a high profile victim this month. Three partners at the financial services division of KPMG in the UK were dismissed following an internal investigation into inappropriate use of WhatsApp. This followed on from a former VTB banker in London also been charged over deleting WhatsApp messages needed as part of an insider trading investigation this month.
Deutsche Bank last year banned all use of WhatsApp for work related communications following the suspension of a rates trader in 2017 after asking a trading counterpart to join a WhatsApp group.
As far as we know, there is still no legal way to monitor WhatsApp from an employee’s personal phone, but be very careful if you do use it for work-related activity as the compliance and surveillance officers are keeping a very close eye.