Exclusive: Market maker Arxis hires ex-Morgan Stanley exec Dweck

[July 31, 2015]  By John McCrank

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Arxis Capital, the market making firm formed last year by former Bank of America Corp employees and ex-Knight Capital chief Thomas Joyce, said on Thursday it hired Jay Dweck as chief technology officer and head of rates and currency trading.

Dweck was previously a managing director at Morgan Stanley, where he was head of strategies and technology for institutional securities, as well as at Goldman Sachs Group, where he headed core strategies and then equities strategies.

Arxis, which began executing trades in March in the United States and Europe, also hired Rajesh Darak as head of technology for Asia as the firm expands its global footprint. Darak was a managing director and head of Asia equities technology at Bank of America and was Asia head of One Delta Equities Technology at Goldman Sachs.

"These are just the first superb additions of talent we expect to make over the next six months," said Joyce, Arxis' executive chairman. He added that Arxis plans to roughly double the number of employees it has to more than forty by year-end from 23 currently.

The New York-based electronic trading firm also said it hired Jia Jia Zhang as its senior quantitative researcher from a similar position at Bank of America. Zhang was a quantitative trader at Citadel Securities before that.

Market makers rest orders on both sides of trade quotes to help make markets more liquid, while profiting from the spread between the bid and offer. Arxis currently makes markets in equities, but plans to expand into other asset classes, such as fixed income and foreign exchange.

"The electrification of the securities industry is a continuing, inescapable trend," said Rich Reppeto, an analyst with Sandler O'Neill and Partners, who said he was impressed by Arxis' management, technology, and its ability to provide liquidity globally.

Arxis competes against the likes of Virtu Financial Inc, Citadel, and KCG Holdings Inc, which was formed by the merger of Joyce's old company, Knight, and high-speed trading firm, Getco.

(Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Andrew Hay)

[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.