Smollen, Tim

Head, Agency Securities Lending Group ● Deutsche Bank ● New York ● Securities Lending Legend ● 

After jumping ship at Deutsche Bank in 2002 with more than a dozen colleagues for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), where he got its securities lending business off the ground and was promoted to global head in 2005, Smollen has returned to Deutsche Bank. When Commerzbank bought Dresdner in May 2009, it spun off securities lending to Deutsche Bank-and, fortuitously, brought Smollen back to his former employer.

No hard feelings at Deutsche Bank, it seems, as Smollen will head the agency securities lending group, where he’ll continue to lead essentially the same innovative securities lending business he spearheaded at DrKW. For the industry, Smollen sees the ever-increasing trend of technology simplifying the lending and financing process continuing.

Technological innovation will lead to “trading through one or two real-time multilateral systems similar to the world of FX or swaps,” he predicts. “I think we are all intrigued to see how the new Quadriserv/OCC and Euronext central clearing platforms develop-it is certainly a step in the right direction.” This trend-along with the creation and growth of the tri-party repo markets, third-party lending and service providers-sand the continued growth and evolution of firms like Data Explorers and Astec-has helped securities lending to grow exponentially, he says.

Back at Deutsche Bank, Smollen may have returned to the past in a way, but he-and securities lending-certainly isn’t looking back.