Vanguard has raided one of its largest rivals State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) to find a senior specialist for its European-focused ETF capital markets team.
Appointee Paul Young joins after a decade long stint at State Street. He spent the bulk of his time working in a similar role for the firm’s EMEA SPDR ETF capital markets team, eventually becoming group head. He began life at the firm in 2007 as a senior equities trader.
Prior to that he worked for the UK’s largest wealth manager St James’s Place on the business development side and spent six years as a portfolio trader for Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
As a senior specialist for the passives giant, Young will be responsible for managing the liquidity of Vanguard’s products and assisting clients with their investment goals. He will report to group head Thomas Bartolacci.
In June, Vanguard lost its ETF capital markets analyst Andrew Moore to JP Morgan Asset Management, which has been on a hiring spree of ETF specialists.
Vanguard’s European push
Young’s hire follows a string of appointments to Vanguard’s European ETF team since the start of this year, which includes most recently installing Simone Rosti as head of Italy in June.
Vanguard is currently one of the world’s biggest investment firms, managing $5.1trn of assets for over 20 million clients. Its European operations have been growing steadily and now account for $175 billion in assets under management at the end of July 2018.
But it is still behind Blackrock, which has around $6.3trn of AUM, including $1.8trn in its iShares division alone. Blackrock trumped Vanguard in FE’s latest passives ratings landing the most top-ranked funds.
State Street meanwhile has around $2.8trn of AUM.
Thomas Merz head of distribution for Vanguard Europe Ex-UK team said client demand has continued to fuel the firm’s hiring spree.
“It is no secret that ETFs have become increasingly popular for their benefits; ultimately leading to better investment outcomes for investors,” Merz said. “Paul’s experience and knowledge will not only help our team ensure clients get the best possible trading experience, but also continue to achieve the lowest possible trading costs, when buying and selling ETFs.”
