Long-time data services stalwart and JPMorgan veteran, Peter Serenita has finally jumped ship to take up a new role at HSBC. After 28 years of loyal service at JPMorgan, Serenita has been poached by HSBC to take on the role of managing director and global head of Entity Services for its Global Banking and Global Markets division.
Prior to his appointment at HSBC, Serenita was the first ever chief data officer (CDO) for JPMorgan’s Worldwide Securities Services and global head of Worldwide Securities Services Pricing Operations, two roles that he held for a period of three years. At the bank, he was charged with the further development of a centre of excellence for data management practices in order to measure STP rates for data and tackle the root causes of data errors.
The system was launched before Serenita’s appointment as CDO in 2006 and put in place measurements for vendor, technology and operational performance and cost measurement. The bank’s data feeds are therefore subject to a selection of business rules, validation and internal checks to ensure it is fit for purpose. However, although the Global Market Reference Data (GMRD) infrastructure was already in place, Serenita was instrumental in improving the coverage and capabilities of the system.
Serenita has also been a regular on the speaking circuit, raising the profile of data management issues, and has often spoken at length about the importance of data integration and downstream impacts of projects. At last year’s FIMA conference in London, he discussed the need for centralised data teams to work closely with downstream users. He will be speaking again at this year’s FIMA conference in November, on the subject of pricing and valuation of OTC instruments, a topic he is also well versed in as a result of his time at JPMorgan.
Serenita held a variety of roles at his time with JPMorgan including technology head of corporate risk (1992-2000), vice president and chief architect for finance (2000-2002), and managing director of global reference data services and head of technology and operations (2002-2006).
It has been a year for people moves and reshuffles; some obviously less desirable than others, as the market recoils from the financial crisis and economic downturn. Another notable CDO departure by choice, however, was John Bottega’s move earlier this year from Citi to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. At the Fed, Bottega is charged with raising the profile of data management and fulfilling his duties as CDO, in a similar vein to his three years as CDO of Citi.
