Stewart Wright Steps Down At Clearstream

Stewart Wright, executive director of the banking business at Clearstream, left the Luxembourg-based ICSD for the last time last night. Wright, who joined the then Cedel in January 1995, is said to want to spend more time with his family. Inevitably, observers (inside as well as outside Clearstream) are portraying the departure of such a senior figure as a further sign that Deutsche Borse is tightening its grip on the settlement arm of its business, whose recent results were less than stellar. Believers in this theory will be encouraged by the fact that all of his direct reports – including Saheed Awan, who heads up the global securities financing business at Clearstream, with which Wright was closely associated – will now report to Volker Potthof, the managing director of the banking and custody business within Deutsche Borse. Potthof is one of the fifteen managing directors of Deustche Borse AG.