Three equities MDs are leaving UBS in London. One is leaving for a new role

As we reported earlier this week, UBS still has costs to cut before the end of this year. It's not clear whether this is why senior people in its electronic equities business have been leaving, but in the case of at least one departure the exit is understood to have been entirely voluntary.

UBS isn't commenting, but it's understood that Chris Marsh, global head of electronic and program trading, Michael Farthing, head of global markets execution technology, and Irina Sonich-Bright, head of market access and agency trading are all leaving.

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Neither Marsh, Farthing nor Sonich-Bright responded to a request to comment. 

It's understood that Sonich-Bright resigned and is joining a fintech firm after a period of gardening leave. The intentions of Marsh and Farthing are unclear.

Colleagues said the exit of Marsh in particular is a shock. "He is very, very senior," said one. Marsh and Farthing are expected to appear in new roles soon. "They are a big loss for UBS," said another former colleague.

All three joined UBS from Credit Suisse and previously worked on Credit Suisse's advanced execution services (AES) trading product. Both Marsh and Farthing arrived prior to the shotgun wedding. Following this event, UBS was reported to have turned off key elements of the AES system in 2023. 

UBS isn't thought to have retained many of the Credit Suisse AES people. There are now fears that remaining people like Jonathan Tse could leave too. They could always go and work for Naz Al-Khudairi, the former star of AES who is currently building a team at Ingenuity Trading. 

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