It’s good to see that some things are still done the old fashioned way. You meet a mate for lunch, you get a job. That’s what seems to have happened when Rod Kaffer joined Invast Global.
Lovely stuff.
The Australian market has for a while now been a haven for UK firms looking to expand into new regions, but the latest review of leverage by ASIC may put a dampener on that. Never the less, prime brokers, shouldn’t be overly affected unless they are offering prime of prime liquidity services to offshore brokers.
Prime brokers offering multi-asset trading capabilities to hedge funds and family offices etc. have less to worry about.
I always bang on about trading being a relationship business and you deal with people rather than platforms. I myself had lunch the other day with a major UK brokerage and we discussed how brokers are really trying to differentiate themselves. It transpired, of course, that really it’s very difficult because all brokers really do is provide access to the markets. It’s about the people.
And sports events are generally a popular way to entertain clients. Mike Tindall in the UK is ambassador to a retail forex brand.
So why not, people like who they like and if they like doing business with the people that work for your brokerage they will do more business.
“We literally met for lunch, and he said ‘if you want to do it, let’s do it’
There is a bit more further reading on the Australian Financial Review