There’s been a number of changes to Equiti Group’s institutional operations, Finance Magnates has learned exclusively, as the company has been scaling up and investing in its institutional foreign exchange desk in London to support its global growth.
In particular, Equiti has recently embedded a range of new technologies, such as a back-office technology solution and a new FX aggregator, to facilitate more customised Liquidity provisions for its clients and provide low latency execution, the company told Finance Magnates.
The new direction of the desk will be to increase Equiti’s buy-side client coverage of asset managers, hedge funds, family offices and local banks. Furthermore, it will focus on macro research, trade idea generation and voice execution.
Equiti to grow institutional desk in London
The growth of its institutional desk will take place in London, due to its prominence in the financial and trading space. Already, the company has restructured its team in the city to accommodate the changes. As part of the growth, Equiti will be onboarding more people in London, namely, two FX Sales Traders and a Desk Junior.
Benedict Sears, Head of the Institutional FX Desk at Equiti
Source: LinkedIn
Speaking to Finance Magnates, Benedict Sears, Head of the Institutional FX Desk at Equiti, said: “These new technologies will provide a more dynamic and flexible trading desk that will facilitate customised liquidity provision for our clients and more tailored pools for Liquidity Providers , allowing them to price more aggressively.
“The number of trading counterparties that the medium-sized clients have is quite small so we can support them by providing much wider access to the global markets to source liquidity that they wouldn’t be able to.”
Hormoz A Faryar leaves Equiti Group
Hormoz Faryar, Global Head of Institutional Sales, Equiti Group
However, as the company is scaling up its institutional FX desk, the trading provider has lost its Global Head of Institutional Sales, Hormoz A Faryar, who has recently stepped down from his position after more than three years in the role.
Faryar, a respected veteran within the FX industry, joined Equiti in March 2017 as the Global Head of Institutional Sales and is based in Dubai. Finance Magnates has received information from a person familiar with the matter, which has since been confirmed by Equiti, that Faryar has stepped down from this position and will be joining a new company in a couple of weeks.
During his career, Faryar has created a reputation as a leading figure within the FX space. He joined Equiti Group back in 2017 from ADSS, where he was Director, Head of Institutional Sales for the Middle East and Africa, his LinkedIn profile shows. At Equiti, Faryar reported to Iskandar Najjar, the CEO of the Group.
Hormoz Faryar likely to remain in finance
At this point, it is unclear as to which company Faryar is moving to. Given his career, which has been in the financial services industry for the past two decades, it is likely he will be staying within this industry, although this is only speculation.
Prior to working with ADSS, where he spent nearly six years, Faryar was employed at Credit Suisse AES (Advanced Execution Services). Whilst here, he worked in FX sales for two years and was also a Vice President.
According to his LinkedIn, Faryar started off his career at State Street in 2000, where his tenure lasted for more than nine years. Specifically, he was employed in the company’s Global Markets division. Here he worked across FX Connect, Currenex and the firm’s eExchange.
