Banc of America Securities has formed an Electronic Trading Services (ETS) group dedicated to developing software for delivery to the firm's institutional investor clients.
In conjunction with the build-out, Banc of America Securities has hired Rob Flatley, formerly chief operating officer of order management vendor Macgregor, as managing director and head of ETS marketing, support and strategic alliances.
Based in New York, Flatley will report to Peter Forlenza and Ross Stevens, co-heads of the ETS group. Forlenza is the firm's head of cash equities while Stevens is chief operating officer for global equities.
Forlenza says the firm's acquisition of quant-driven broker-dealer Vector last year was a formative step in the creation of ETS and "the foundation on which we are developing leading applications for clients".
She adds: "The formation of ETS ensures dedicated resources within BAS to continually identify and deploy new solutions for clients."
Supplemental: Banc of America Securities late today announced the acquisition of Dallas-based Direct Access Financial Corp (DAFC), a leading provider of direct access trading technology to the institutional brokerage and investor community.
Banc of America's Stevens comments: "This acquisition of DAFC extends our technology platform, and creates an opportunity to win market share in an increasingly important area of the equities business."
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed