Clear Street, an independent, non-bank prime broker, has reportedly hired Kevin McCarthy as the firm’s first Chief Administrative Officer and Head of Clearing.
McCarthy will “report to Clear Street Co-Founder and CEO Chris Pento and oversee the firm’s clearing services for Market Makers, while increasing operational efficiencies across the business and support Clear Street’s expansion as the firm moves into new markets and asset classes.”
Prior to joining Clear Street, McCarthy has “spent more than 30 years at Bank of America Merill Lynch launching and managing professional clearing and prime brokerage financing services for sophisticated professional traders, hedge funds, asset managers, and major financial institutions.”
As Head of Professional Clearing and Prime Brokerage Client Service, he “managed 125+ client service, team leads, and relationship management professionals supporting 500+ global professional trading and hedge fund clients and expanded a US-based prime brokerage into a multi-currency platform supporting 70+ global markets.”
Chris Pento, Co-Founder and CEO, Clear Street said:
“Kevin brings credibility and knowledge to our already robust leadership bench. We’re eager to expand our services for market makers, which we see as a major development area for Clear Street. I’m confident that Kevin will accelerate our next stage of growth.”
As noted in the announcement, Clear Street explains that it is “building financial infrastructure for today’s institutions.”
Founded in 2018, Clear Street is “an independent, non-bank prime broker replacing the legacy infrastructure used across capital markets.”
The firm started from scratch by “building a completely cloud-native clearing and custody system designed for today’s complex, global market.”
Clear Street’s proprietary prime brokerage platform “adds significant efficiency to the market, while focusing on minimizing risk and cost for clients.”
The firm’s goal is “to create a single source-of-truth platform for every asset class, in every country, and in any currency.”
Clients of all sizes “use their clearing, custody, execution, and prime brokerage platform to operate their businesses.”
The financial industry still “relies on outdated technology developed in the 1970s. 50-year-old COBOL mainframes are still in use today , creating a number of complex problems.”
Over time, firms built new technology “on top of antiquated technology.”
This process is “not only frustrating and inefficient—it kills profit margins and can blow up a firm.”
This is where Clear Street comes in.
Clear Street started from scratch by “building a completely cloud-native, clearing and custody system designed for today’s complex, global market.” Their mission is “to build a modern, single source-of-truth platform capable of handling every asset class, in every country, and in any currency.”
