Seven months after outlining plans to create a new business unit that combines information technology, market data and analytics, Deutsche Borse has named Hewlett-Packard’s Hauke Stars as CIO.
Stars is currently general manager of HP Switzerland and will succeed Michael Kuhn, whose contract expires at the end of this year. Along with her responsibility for the IT, market data and analytics department, Stars will also oversee selected external IT services.
[Read: For Exchanges, It’s Time To Shape Up and Spend More on Tech to learn more.]
Meanwhile, Frank Gerstenschläger, board member for Xetra, the group’s equities platform, has announced he will leave next year. His position as board member will not be extended to another executive, effectively reducing to 5 the number of board members.
The loss of a dedicated board member for equities underlines the diminishing importance of share trading to global exchange groups, the Financial Times pointed out.
From the FT:
Cash equities trading was once at the heart of Deutsche Börse, which runs the Frankfurt exchange. However, start-up electronic platforms have fragmented equities trading in Europe, while Deutsche Börse has derived more growth from derivatives as well as clearing, settlement and custody of securities, which make up the “plumbing” of trading activity. The move to consolidate the cash equities and derivatives businesses comes as a weak outlook and low interest rates slow investor appetite for trading equities and fixed income-related products. Declining demand in the low-margin, high-volume equities business is forcing brokers and exchanges to restructure, while average daily volume at Eurex has fallen 45 per cent year-on-year to just over 5m contracts. .
The exchange, which saw its plan to merge with NYSE blocked by regulators earlier this year, has reappointed CEO Reto Francioni. He will serve another term until October 2016.
Following the failure of its planned merger with NYSE, Deutsche Borse will spend the $208.7 million it had committed to invest in growth this year on Clearstream, its settlement subsidiary, as well as on derivatives exchange Eurex.
