EBS, the institutional ECN division of ICAP, announced today that it has appointed Paul Allmark as Global Head of e-Commerce Solutions. Mr. Allmark will join the EBS Executive Management team and report to CEO, Gil Mandelzis.
As Head of e-Commerce Solutions, Paul will be responsible for growing EBS’s liquidity distribution including its white label and aggregation services.
Prior to his new London-based senior executive appointment at EBS which commences today, Mr. Allmark spent 10 years at Thomson Reuters, first as Global Head of Electronic Trading, where he led the drive towards e-commerce solutions and built both the Reuters electronic trading business and the Reuters aggregation service. He then moved to become Head of Marketplaces for Europe, with responsibility for revenues across trading platforms and information products in Europe. Paul’s tenure at Thomson Reuters followed six years at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson where, among other projects, he was responsible for the launch of Piranha, the first public-internet-delivered single-bank FX trading platform in 1998.
It is most certainly apparent that EBS (subsidiary of ICAP, LON:IAP) and its rival Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) are duking it out for supremacy in the institutional Forex ECN business, with Thomson Reuters’ FXall clearly ahead in this battle currently, with volumes at  an all-time high, a situation magnified by the recent reporting of the lowest FX volumes that EBS has experienced in nine years.
Commenting on the appointment, Gil Mandelzis, CEO of EBS, said: “With 15 years’ experience, Paul’s deep knowledge of both FX and electronic trading is going to be crucial in ensuring EBS provides its customers worldwide with innovative and world class e-commerce solutions. We are delighted Paul is joining EBS at this exciting time and helping to take the business to the next level.’’
Paul Allmark, Global Head of e-Commerce Solutions at EBS, said: “Momentum is building in EBS with the launch of cost-effective end-to-end solutions and products, such as EBS Direct, that create real value for customers. I’m looking forward to leading the development of an e-commerce offering that will enable our customers to remain highly competitive, as EBS itself grows as a multi-product business.”