Samuel Hocking, global head of prime brokerage sales at BNP Paribas, is leaving the firm.
A spokesperson confirmed his departure, which was originally reported in the Wall Street Journal. The spokesperson said Hocking is leaving for personal reasons specifically to be closer to his wife and three children in San Francisco.
Hockings role will not be refilled, the spokesperson said. Instead, J.P. Muir, who heads U.S. prime brokerage sales, and Matthew Pinnock, who heads European and Asian prime brokerage sales, will be the most senior heads of the prime brokerage division. Previously they reported to Hocking as global head of prime brokerage.
Pinnock, a long-time prime brokerage veteran, was appointed to the position in April. Previously, he was co-head of Prime Services Europe and headed Sales & Capital Introductions globally at Nomura until the firm began scaling back its European prime brokerage division. Before that he was at Lehman Brothers, which was sold to Nomura when the bank collapsed in 2008.
Hocking joined BNP Paribas in 2008 when the firm bought the Bank of America Prime Brokerage Division, of which he was the co-head of global prime brokerage sales.
Since then he has been at the helm of the sales team of this growing business at BNP Paribas. In 2010, the firm expanded its prime brokerage business in North America with regional appointments in capital introductions. BNP Paribas has a strong ambition to become a tier-one prime brokerage house and will continue to invest in our business and hire talent to win market share and build a sustainable leading franchise, he said at the time.
In July last year, BNP Paribas unveiled a global prime brokerage platform, enabling the bank to clear and custody assets in nearly every market as well as offer margin financing in 31 markets and in 13 currencies.
(CG)