Chundury appointed to ISSA board after NSDL joins as member
The Board of the International Securities Services Association (ISSA) announced a new Board member firm, National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), with Padmaja Chunduru appointed as representative.
Chunduru has been the managing director and CEO of NSDL since Sept. 2021, after completing a 37-year stint in the banking industry, with State Bank of India and Indian Bank. In a career spanning more than three decades, with postings in India and USA, she gained rich experience in corporate lending and credit management, retail operations and digital banking, treasury and international operations. .
Under her leadership NSDL implemented the T+1 Settlement cycle in the Indian market, and have delivered the DLT Blockchain based platform for Debenture Security and Covenant Monitoring. She has also led the CSR initiatives at NSDL and launched an India wide education program for investors in multiple languages.
Vicky Kyproglou, ISSA Board chair, said in a statement: “The importance of the Indian market continues to increase and having NSDL’s experience on the Board will ensure that we continue to live the International part of ISSA. Padmaja joining as their representative is great news for ISSA. Her knowledge and ability to deliver for the market, be it T+1 or DLT solutions, can help ISSA maintain its relevance and grow the franchise.”
“We have been keen supporters of the ISSA mission as we believe that connections, collaboration and change make this industry stronger,” Chunduru said in a statement.
LME Group appoints new CTO
LME Group announced the appointment of Alistair Baldwin as its new chief technology officer. Baldwin will join the Group on 15 January 2024, succeeding Mario Quonils who has decided to relocate back to Germany.
LME CEO, Matthew Chamberlain, said in a statement that Quonils “has been instrumental in building-out and strengthening our IT function and spearheading our technology transformation program”.
Richard Leung, HKEX Group CIO, said in a statement that Baldwin is joining the group amid deployment of a new platform, which will deliver “lower latency and enhanced order functionality (and) kick-starts our aspirations for modernized market structure.”
Baldwin will report to both Matthew Chamberlain, LME CEO and to Michael Carty, LME Clear CEO; as well as to Richard Leung, HKEX Group CIO. He will also become a member of the LME Executive Committee.
He joins the Group from NatWest Markets, where most recently he held the role of chief information officer and was a member of the NatWest Markets Executive Committee and NatWest Group One Bank Leadership Team. Prior to his roles at NatWest Markets, Baldwin was global head of Equities IT at HSBC from 2011 to 2018, where he led a major transformation program to modernize their in-house equities technology platform.
Houlihan Lokey adds senior banker focused on payments fintech
Houlihan Lokey announced that Kartik Sudeep has joined the firm as a managing director in its FinTech Group. Sudeep is based in New York and will lead and build upon the firm’s payments coverage efforts within FinTech.
He joins from Moelis & Company, where he was a managing director and senior coverage officer for FinTech, advising corporates and financial sponsors on a range of M&A and financing transactions across the payments sector. Prior to Moelis, he held roles in Jefferies’ Technology Investment Banking Group, including as a senior coverage officer for the financial technology, payments, and software sectors.
“The payments sector is probably the largest segment within the FinTech landscape, with pure-play payments companies in addition to many software companies adding extensive payments capabilities to their core businesses. Kartik’s deep sector expertise will help guide our global client base and build on the long track record of success Houlihan Lokey has achieved in the payments sector. This expertise, alongside his steadfast client focus, together represent an outstanding fit with our corporate culture. We’re delighted he has joined the firm to lead our payments practice,” said Alec Ellison, Houlihan Lokey’s global head of FinTech.