BAS Evaluates ETS Group

Banc of America Securities hired former Nasdaq corporate strategy senior executive Bill Harts as a consultant to assess the future direction of its Electronic Trading Services (ETS) group, according to a BAS spokeswoman.

The move follows the departure in May of Ross Stevens, COO, global equities, at BAS, who was the head of ETS. Stevens left BAS "to pursue other opportunities," according to the spokeswoman. The brokerage firm has not yet named a replacement for Stevens, a former quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and the former co-CEO of UrbanFetch, a concierge service.

Ross spearheaded the acquisitions of Vector Partners in 2003 for its algorithmic execution technology, and Direct Financial Access Corp. in 2004 for its direct-market-access trading technology. The deals were part of a strategy to build a growing suite of electronic trading products for BAS' institutional investor clients.

Also during Ross' leadership, BAS unveiled Premier Block Trading (PBT) - a novel system that quotes two-way prices for block trades based on an evaluation of the stock's characteristics and the firm's existing position.

"ETS remains a core business for our equities platform, and we remain committed to developing innovative, value-added products and services for our clients," says the BAS spokeswoman. "Our talented ETS team is working closely with well-known industry consultant Bill Harts to continue doing so."

Before assuming the consulting role at BAS, Harts held senior executive positions in corporate strategy at the Nasdaq Stock Market. Prior to that, Harts worked for 10 years at Salomon Smith Barney, where he served as managing director of strategic business development for the firm's global equity division after having run the firm's global portfolio trading operation worldwide.

Neither Harts nor Stevens could be reached for comment. Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio