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State Street to Provide FX Workflow Solution to Merrill Lynch Investment Managers

State Street Corp., the provider of financial services to institutional investors, has developed a foreign exchange (FX) execution management workflow solution via its Global Link network for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) based in London.

Using Global Link's FX Connect execution platform, the workflow solution integrates with MLIM's current processes. It allows MLIM's equities business to aggregate multiple sources of FX requirements, view associated compliance requirements, trade with multiple counterparties and access reporting capabilities through a single platform.

"State Street's Global Link understood our workflow needs and developed a comprehensive workflow product to help further automate our foreign exchange process," said Paul Walker-Duncalf, managing director of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, in a release.

"This collaboration with MLIM is a next step in the evolution of foreign exchange solutions," said Simon Wilson-Taylor, managing director and worldwide head of Global Link for State Street, in a release. "As transparency and compliance requirements become more time-consuming, a flexible and full-service solution that spans multiple trading processes significantly increases trading efficiencies."

Convexity Capital Management Goes Live on Advent's Geneva

Convexity Capital Management, a new Boston-based institutional investment management firm, has selected Geneva from Advent Software as its investment management software system. Geneva delivers Convexity Capital broad financial instrument coverage, real-time technical architecture and ease of implementation.

Convexity Capital was founded by former Harvard Management CEO, Jack Meyer, and closed its first fund in February 2006.

"Although we have a very competent fund administrator, we wanted a comprehensive internal system that could give us 'belt and suspenders' control. Geneva enables us to quickly and easily generate daily strategy-level P&L reports and monthly NAVs, which we then reconcile back to our administrator. Geneva gives us the high level of control and operational efficiency that we require," said Stephen McSweeney, COO at Convexity Capital, in a release.

The addition of Convexity Capital expands the number of clients using Geneva to 65, according to Advent.

ING Investment Management Brings In Costa to Lead Portfolio Management for Quantitative Equity

ING Investment Management hired Vincent Costa as senior vice president and head of portfolio management for quantitative equity. In this role, Costa will lead the portfolio management and client relations functions for ING Investment Management's quantitative equity portfolios reporting to Omar Aguilar, head of quantitative equity. He will oversee the implementation of the firm's proprietary quantitative models as well as the development of new quantitative strategies.

Costa joins ING Investment Management from Merrill Lynch Investment Management, where he worked for the last seven years in senior quantitative equity positions. Earlier in his career, Costa worked for nearly 10 years at Bankers Trust Company, managing global equity strategies.

"Vincent is among the top quantitative equity investors in our industry, and I am very pleased to welcome him to ING Investment Management," said Aguilar, in a release. "He brings a wealth of experience delivering strong investment performance as well as effective leadership and a deep understanding of clients. His extensive background with both traditional and derivatives strategies are well-aligned with our current offerings and our product development initiatives."

Sanders Morris Harris Group Hires New Head of Asset and Wealth Management Division

Sanders Morris Harris Group (SMHG), a Houston-based financial services holding company, will bring together two of its divisions under the leadership of Stephen Cordill, who was hired as president of the firm's Asset and Wealth Management Division.

With more than $10 billion in assets under management, SMHG's Asset and Wealth Management Division had been the leading component underlying the firm's significant growth. In 2005, approximately 60 percent of the firm's earnings came from those combined areas.

Cordill most recently ran the Oppenheimer office in Houston, which he built to over $25 million of primarily fee-based revenue. Former positions also include establishing the Financial Planning Department at Touche Ross, heading Financial Services at Prudential Securities, and running the Special Products Group and Institutional Distribution for Alliance Capital.

"We believe that linking our asset and wealth management businesses, putting them collectively under a person with Steve's background and skills, should help to enhance our profitability, as well as our growth," said George Ball, Chairman of SMHG, in a release. "His addition demonstrates the firm's deep commitment to furthering Sanders Morris Harris Group's position in assisting wealthy investors.