Reuters names new global head of risk

UK trading systems and market data vendor Reuters has made Sebastien Rousotte global head of risk, a position that has been empty since the departure of Mike Whitaker earlier this summer.

Paris-based Rousotte now oversees the company’s range of risk management products, including the award-winning Kondor+ tool, which he has managed for the past five years.

Rousotte will now focus on selling four applications – the front-office module Kondor+, mid-office tools Kondor Global Limits and Kondor Value-at-Risk and the back-office system Kondor Trade Processing, which together can be used as a complete front- to back-office straight-through processing system.

Other ongoing projects include integration of the risk group’s products with the Reuters electronic trading group, managed by Mark Redwood in London, and ensuring products can accommodate trades settled on the continuous-linked settlement service for foreign exchange.

A further area of development for the risk group will be dealing with the needs of the increasing number of banks moving their back offices to lower cost centres in Asia.

"This is a real opportunity for Reuters," Rousotte told RiskNews' sister publication FX Week.

Scalability of Reuters’ back-office systems and wide instrument coverage would be key in helping customers upgrade their back-office technology, said Rousotte. This would be backed up by Reuters’ strong existing presence in the region. "A third of our business [within the risk group] is already in Asia," he said.

Rousotte reports to Peter Moss, global head of enterprise at Reuters in London, which is one of four new segments within Reuters that were created by the firm’s latest reorganisation. The others are: institutional sales and trading, which includes the foreign exchange matching systems; research and asset management; and media.

Previously, Reuters was divided into: investment banking and brokerage; treasury, asset management; and corporates and media.