Thomas Murray Hirers Former BNY Mellon CSD Team for Potential Utility

Thomas Murray has hired the former team of BNY Mellon CSD to explore capabilities in the post trade space, including partnering with other organisations to create a utility.

Chris Prior-Willeard left BNY Mellon as leader of the CSD after the bank halted further investment into the Belgium-based business. He joined Thomas Murray Advisory Services, along with An Mestdagh, Robert Head and Carl Janson, on July 1.

Prior-Willeard said the drivers of drivers of industry change remain and he was fortunate to be a pioneer of the new channel of market infrastructure while at BNY Mellon. “With EMIR and AIFMD coming in since then there is now specific support and less focus on the specific organisations,” he says.

“It has been a pull rather than a push. We have been approached by a number of organisations in the sphere to develop a solution, one that could add to the advisory capability of Thomas Murray Previously there were horizontal structures in the industry and now there is an emerging trend of more mutual structures and consortiums with a utility being the best means of a shared approach among organisations.

“I see the advantages of market utility where members have a shared interest and this is certainly one of the things we are considering.”

Thomas Murray said it was “delighted to offer Chris and his team the opportunity to continue to explore further the opportunities in the post-trade landscape on which TM Advisory Services particularly focuses”.

Tim Reucroft of TM Advisory Services says: “With the advent of T2S and CSDR, the dynamics of the CSD industry are changing rapidly. This creates opportunities which we believe that TM Advisory Services – as an independent provider – can seize to offer the market a new paradigm that challenges the historical alignments by providing a pan-European solution that captures both favourable cost benefits as well as meeting the new regulatory requirements.”