Bank of New York has purchased Bermuda-based G-Trade Services to form part of the bank's brokerage and clearing services division.
G-Trade was founded by CLSA Emerging Markets in 1999 to provide financial institutions worldwide with wholesale execution services, including electronic direct access trading and basket trading capabilities. The firm is also the executing and clearing broker for non-US equities executed through Bloomberg's Tradebook system.
Rodney Smyth, CEO of CLSA, explains: "G-Trade developed out of an emerging markets basket and programme trading business and has been very successful for CLSA. It has rapidly grown into a global business, which no longer fits our core strategy as an emerging markets investment bank."
Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Hong Kong, CLSA is the 35% management owned and operated emerging markets arm of Credit Lyonnais.
Smyth says the proceeds from the G-Trade sale will be reinvested in the Asian business. "Our plans include a joint venture investment bank in China, upgrading of our South East Asian licenses and increasing resources in important markets like Korea and Taiwan," he says.