Home ListingJune 10, 2014

Macquarie Takes BNY Mellon’s Discarded Transitions Team

Despite industry departures, one bank sees growth in transition management.

Reported by Featured Author

(June 10, 2014) — Two senior members of BNY Mellon’s now defunct transition management team have joined Macquarie to bolster its offering in the sector.

Mark Dwyer, formerly head of the US bank’s transitions team in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and Graham Cook, one of the unit’s directors, have joined the Australian institution’s Portfolio Solutions group in London, the company has announced.

Along with the hires, Macquarie said it would launch this group into EMEA. It had previously only been available to its clients in Asia-Pacific and the Americas. This group encompasses the bank’s growing transitions business.

Macquarie is one of the few institutions pursuing transition management as a growth sector.

In March, BNY Mellon became the latest major player to close its transition management unit, following the exit of JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, and Convergex from the largest investment markets.

However, in September, Macquarie had announced it had hired Fred Fogg and Lance Vegna as co-heads of Portfolio Solutions in the Americas. The pair had led Credit Suisse’s transitions team in the America’s before the group’s closure.

Despite the apparent shrinking of the pool from which to choose a transition manager, those who use them have reported increasingly good service, aiCIO’s annual survey on the industry found last June.

According to the survey, users have a greater understanding of transition management models (57% had a good or better understanding now, compared with 41% a year earlier), and half of asset owners now said they mostly or fully trust the transition management industry (versus 25% that said the same a year earlier).