Citi's Richardson to Head BeX

The Boston Equities Exchange (BeX) hired former Citigroup managing director Thomas Richardson as its new president. Richardson left Citigroup in New York to assume his new role on Nov. 6 in Boston, the same week that BeX was scheduled to launch its electronic marketplace.

BeX is the electronic stock market owned by the Boston Stock Exchange and five equity partners -- securities firms Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Fidelity Brokerage Company, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.

Prior to leaving Citigroup, Richardson was a managing director in the firm's corporate and investment banking division, where he spent more than 12 years in institutional trading. Most recently, he was responsible for managing the firm's strategic investment portfolio in U.S. equities, according to a release.

Richardson made the career move at a time when the regional exchanges - Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and National Stock Exchange - are turning into automated market centers to comply with Reg NMS. He calls the evolving equity market structure one of the more exciting sectors in the industry. "I don't think that opportunities like this really come along too often," Richardson tells Advanced Trading. "There is a lot of capital being deployed, and technology is being upgraded at lightening speed."

Richardson says exchanges are going to need quality management, great technology and a low-cost platform, as well as innovation, in order to succeed. "I think Boston has all of those [elements]," he adds.

BeX will use a suite of technology from Atos Euronext Market Solutions and Lava Trading, according to Richardson. He says his initial goal will be to "get the [electronic] platform up and running, get liquidity into the system and create some momentum." In the long term, Richardson continues, his goal is to build the BeX into a formidable competitor in the space. "And that's going to take a lot of time and resources," he says.

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