London Stock Exchange ETF Team Halved After Departures
Michael Stanley and Hetal Patel have left their positions with LSE.
The London Stock Exchange (LSE)'s ETF team has been halved following the departure of the head of ETFs Michael Stanley and business development head Hetal Patel.
The exchange confirmed both Stanley and Patel had left the group, with the LSE now actively recruiting for a new senior product manager for ETFs.
Stanley, who had worked at the LSE for over a decade, was promoted to head of ETFs less than a year ago, having joined as a business support analyst in 2012.
He was responsible for managing both the trading and the listing business, with his departure occurring before the first cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) listed on the exchange for the first time on May 28.
Patel also joined LSE in 2012 as a research analyst before taking on several roles in the capital markets team. She became head of business development for ETPs in April last year.
The timing of the departures has not been disclosed; however, Patel said she left the business in a LinkedIn post earlier this month and is set to start a new role in July.
FCA Approval of Crypto Listings
The FCA gave greenlit cryptocurrency listings on U.K. exchanges in March, giving professional investors access to the products for the first time.
However, crypto ETNs in the U.K. will only be available to professional investors, with the ban on retail access still in place.
To list on the LSE, crypto ETNs must be physically backed, non-leveraged and offer exposure to bitcoin or ether only. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the smart contracts Ethereum blockchain.
WisdomTree announced its plans to list its The WisdomTree Physical Bitcoin ETP (WBTC) and the WisdomTree Physical Ethereum ETP (WETH) on May 28, with 21Shares also set to list its crypto ETPs.
This article first appeared in etf.com's sister publication, ETFStream.com.
