OREANDA-NEWS. BCS Financial Group (BCS), the largest broker of equities and derivatives on the Moscow exchange, has appointed Tim Bevan to CEO of BCS Prime Brokerage. The new role will be responsible for all international operations including future growth strategy, new products and diversifying the business.

The CEO role has been created due to the rapid expansion of the ex-Russian business and following on from other senior appointments at BCS such as the recent hire of John Barker as Chairman and Max Hayden as Global Head of Prime Brokerage. This hiring spree, combined with the planned expansion and diversification of business lines has created the perfect climate for a CEO to lead operations outside of Russia.

In the last 18 months BCS UK operations alone have continued to grow with UK activity becoming a core entity within the BCS group for investment banking activity. BCS' position in Russia has also become more dominant now accounting for 25% of both equity and derivatives markets and establishing itself as the leading FX broker, much of this due to business from international clients. The ex-Russian business now is set for rapid expansion with a 50% growth in headcount expected over the next 12 months.

Part of Tim's remit as CEO will be to introduce new products and services in order to diversify global operations. This includes moving away from being a pure broker to become a leading liquidity venue for Russian and Russian related instruments. Growth plans also include diversifying the business lines in both geography and product, and expanding current financing operation activities.

Roman Lokhov, CEO, Head of GMIB BCS Financial Group, commented:

"Since opening our UK office BCS Prime Brokerage has grown significantly, we believe that now is the time to recognise this growth by creating a new CEO position for which Tim was the natural candidate. This position will give Tim and the senior team a more formalised structure to continue working towards new business lines outside Russia."

Tim Bevan, CEO of BCS Prime Brokerage, commented:

"Since joining BCS we have worked hard to build the business outside of Russia and grow our range of products and services on offer to clients, this hard work has been rewarded and we are now the go-to broker for Russia and Russian products. The business outside of Russia is now at the size where it is an integral part of the BCS global operations and I am delighted that the board of BCS have recognised the work of the team by creating a CEO position for non-Russian operations which I am delighted to have been appointed to. I look forward to continuing to grow and expand our business in the coming years."

Tim joined BCS Financial Group in 2012 from Otkritie Capital where he was Director of Global Electronic Trading, prior to this he was at RenCap working initially in delta-1 structuring and then equity sales. Tim started his career with eight years at the London Stock Exchange where he managed the Exchange Traded Fund and Exchange Traded Commodity and Securitised Derivates segments. Tim was also heavily involved in the launch of Russian DR derivatives on EDX.