London, UK– January 18, 2006 – BGC, a leading inter-dealer brokerage firm providing integrated voice and electronic services to wholesale fixed income, interest rate, foreign exchange and derivatives markets worldwide, today announced that it will be creating an institutional foreign exchange trading desk targeted toward smaller financial institutions. BGC also confirmed the addition of several new hires in London as it looks to further expand the existing foreign exchange business.
Steve Pryor, a foreign exchange veteran with over 18 years of financial markets experience will join BGC as Director of Foreign Exchange and will report to Nigel Renton, Managing Director of Foreign Exchange. Mr. Pryor joins BGC from IFX Markets, where he was Director responsible for foreign exchange sales and trading. In his new position at BGC, Mr. Pryor will be esponsible for the day to day running of the institutional foreign exchange business.
In addition to Mr. Pryor’s appointment, BGC will also add a number of FX professionals to the team, all of whom have worked under Mr. Pryor in his previous role at IFX Markets. The new additions will be Lee Knight, Ian Wilk, Kevin Taylor, William Alsford, Mark Goater, Mark Lockey and Alicia Long.
BGC has experienced tremendous growth since its launch in 2004 and has more than tripled in size. The additions are seen as an ideal fit to its existing foreign exchange business and an important part of BGC’s continued expansion as the company seeks to improve its service and attract further high quality customer facing staff.
Nigel Renton, Managing Director of Foreign Exchange at BGC said, “We have seen a steady increase in demand for Foreign exchange and related services from the market, including appetite for foreign exchange products from smaller financial institutions. In addition to providing a service to new clients, we are always seeking to improve the quality of the flow, information, and service, offered to existing wholesale clients and are confident this expansion within BGC’s foreign exchange offering will deliver benefits to existing market participants.”
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About BGC
BGC is a leading inter-dealer broker, providing integrated voice and electronic services for wholesale market participants worldwide. BGC is active in the global fixed income, interest rate, foreign exchange and derivative markets, offering both telephone and screen-based price discovery, trade execution, straight -through processing and access to electronic trading services from eSpeed Inc. (Nasdaq: ESPD). The firm, named after fixed income trading innovator B. Gerald Cantor, has offices in London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Nyon and Milan. To learn more, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.
For any foreign exchange related business enquiries, please contact Nigel Renton, Managing Director of Foreign Exchange atnrenton@bgcpartners.com or on Reuters code BGCI.
Media Contacts:
Adrian Thomas – London
44-20-7894-8647
athomas@bgcpartners.com
Michael Geller – New York
212-610-2430
mgeller@bgcpartners.com