Two senior equities traders exit SocGen in New York
Two longtime Société Générale traders have left the bank. Olivier Blaise, SocGen’s head of volatility trading stocks and ETFs, and Benjamin Messas, head of exotic equity trading in the Americas, each exited in May, according to FINRA records. SocGen didn’t comment on the nature of their departures.
Both Blaise and Messas are SocGen lifers – literally. Messas has been working at the French bank since 2005, directly after earning his Master’s in Finance from Panthéon-Assas University in Paris. He has spent his entire career working for SocGen in New York, according to LinkedIn. Blaise, a managing director who has held a number of equity derivative roles, has been with the bank since 2000 after earning his own Master’s in Finance from École Centrale Paris. Neither has yet called another bank home.
The news comes just two days after Société Générale said that it will buy Commerzbank's equity markets and commodities business as the German bank continues its restructuring. The departures are understood to be unrelated to this deal.
SocGen also lost its most senior credit trader in June. Laurent Henrio, global head of credit trading at the French bank, resigned last month and is said to be joining the buy-side, insiders told us at the time.
SocGen has been lightly trimming staff within its corporate and investment bank after promising “strict control on costs” during its first quarter earnings report. The bank had noted at the end of last year that it planned to expand in select areas, including in rates, FX and corporate equity derivatives trading.
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