Wedbush Securities, a California-based financial services provider, is now expanding into the foreign exchange prime brokerage industry. With the move, the company is going beyond providing securities brokerage, wealth management and investment banking services.

Wedbush Expands Services

Wedbush, which was founded nearly seven decades ago, said it will start offering the new services in May 2022. The firm noted that the new business will broaden its existing multi-asset clearing services.

As part of the new move, Wedbush has hired a number of Jefferies executives led by industry veteran Michael Stone, a former Vice President (VP) at commodities futures dealer Jefferies Bache, to build the new unit. Stone leads the prime brokerage team as Senior Vice President.

The new unit is being organized under Wedbush's newly-established Fixed Income, Currencies, Commodities and Securities Finance (FICCS) Division, the US brokerage firm said. Other Jefferies ex-employees joining Stone to build the new unit include James Peckham, Ray Cera and Stephen Lamb, who were all previously VP of FX Prime Brokerage at Jefferies.

“With our launch into FX Prime Brokerage and having one of the best FX teams in the business, this definitely adds an extra level of service and investment opportunities for our clients,” noted Bob Fitzsimmons, the Executive Vice President of FICCS.

Michael Stone Boasts 30 Years of Experience

Michael Stone, Wedbush Securities’ new Senior Vice President for FX Prime Brokerage, is an industry veteran with over 30 years of financial services career experience under his belt. Before joining Wedbush, Stone served as the Vice President at Jefferies Bache for over 13 and a half years.

The senior executive also spent a short stint at the Royal Bank of Scotland between March 2008 and May 2009. Before then, Stone worked for nearly two decades at Dutch bank ABN AMRO, serving as the Director of FX Prime Brokerage.

While Wedbush announced Stone’s appointment on Wednesday, his LinkedIn profile shows that he took on the role in December 2022, Wedbush has been fulfilling the new role from Wedbush's division in Chicago.

“I and my team from Jefferies are very excited to join a firm that is so highly regarded in the futures space,” Stone noted, adding that they were looking forward “to building a business that adds value to mid-level corporates and professional trading groups who are perpetually in need of access to high-quality liquidity on reasonable credit terms.”

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