New prime brokerage team nabs longtime Goldman Sachs veteran

The new prime brokerage unit launched late last year by trade execution and clearing specialist INTL FCStone is growing. The three-man team that was pulled from Cowen to start the new business unit last November will be nearly a dozen deep once gardening leaves expire, according to sources close to the firm. The latest addition is Lindsay Sine, who was the branch manager of Goldman Sachs’ prime brokerage business at the firm’s Chicago office. She started at FCStone on Monday in Atlanta as a director. Sine had spent the previous 15 years at Goldman.

Known mostly for its role in commodities and energy markets, FCStone entered the prime brokerage space for the first time in November of last year by hiring away three former managing directors from Cowen, including both of its U.S. co-heads: Douglas Nelson and Michael DeJarnette. They joined Cowen in 2017 following its $100 million acquisition of Convergex Group, where Nelson was the CEO of its prime services division for over a decade.

With the hiring of Sine, the new team is now up to 10, including additions in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Dallas. More hires are expected.

Prime brokerage has been an interesting area to watch in recent years as several big banks have scaled back from the potentially lucrative yet capital-intensive business while new entrants have started to fill in the gaps. Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have been making cuts; BNY Mellon and Standard Bank just started offering prime services over the last 18 months. Meanwhile, Bank of America had to essentially rebuild its team following an alleged sex scandal. Now FCStone is making waves. 

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