Following the announcement of the departure of outgoing CEO Laurent Paulhac in September last year, credit derivatives data provider Credit Market Analysis (CMA) has spent the last nine months looking for a suitable replacement. This week, the vendor announced it has finally found such an individual in the form of ex-Icap managing director Antoine Kohler.
CME Group bought CMA in March 2008 and then transferred Paulhac from the subsidiary to its own executive management team in September 2009, as managing director of OTC products and services. He is responsible for leading the development, execution and management of CME Group’s global OTC business strategy.
In light of Paulhac’s departure, the vendor spent the next nine months looking for a suitable replacement and chose Kohler on the strength of his experience in the derivatives market. Prior to joining CMA, he was managing director of the Information Services division at the interdealer broker Icap, a role he assumed in 2006. In this role, he was focused on developing the firm’s solutions for the valuation of complex securities.
Speaking at an A-Team Group event in November, Kohler indicated that there has been a noticeable uptick in interest in the valuations space over the last couple of years, but from the perspective of a provider, he said this has not yet fully translated into budget. One particular area that he said has seen investment is the complex end of the spectrum or “prices that must be derived from virtually no data”, but again processing of these is very manual. It is this space that CMA has been attempting to extend its offering and compete with rivals such as Markit.
In his new role, Kohler will be global head of CMA’s business, focused on promoting the growth of the company through its benchmark QuoteVision, DataVision and valuations products. Kohler explains of his new role: “Now more than ever, the need for timely and transparent data is essential to the efficient functioning of both the credit markets and the broader financial system.”
In his 13-year career at Icap and its legacy companies Garban and Intercapital, he also served as head of business development and marketing for three years, and later as director, icap.com and Intercapital Securities Limited for five years. He also worked as manager of business development at Liffe and as a swaps money broker at Harlow Butler UEDA.
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