OCC hires general counsel and senior risk officials

Equity derivatives clearing organization OCC has hired a new general counsel and senior risk-management officials.

OCC provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 20 exchanges and trading platforms. In the wake of the financial crisis, CCPs have taken on greater importance in international trading from a risk-management perspective as regulators have pushed for more derivatives contracts to be traded on exchanges or electronic trading platforms and cleared through CCPs.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council in 2012 designated OCC as a systemically important financial market utility as part of the Dodd-Frank Act reforms.

OCC has recruited Janet Angstadt as executive vice president and general counsel. In her new role she is responsible for the strategic direction of OCC’s legal programs, targeting compliance and regulatory requirements. She reports to CEO John Davidson and is a member of OCC’s management committee.

Angstadt succeeds Joseph Kamnik, who had moved into a new role as senior vice president and chief regulatory counsel at OCC, according to a spokesperson.

Angstadt was most recently at law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, working as a partner and co-head of the Chicago financial services practice, with extensive experience in corporate and securities law.

OCC has also hired Saqib Jamshed as senior vice president for model risk governance. He reports to executive vice president and chief risk officer John Fennell.

In his new role, Jamshed is responsible for improving OCC’s model risk-management program to make sure there is appropriate measurement and mitigation of risk related to its quantitative models and tools. This will entail liaising with regulatory examiners and other outside parties regarding OCC’s models and risk analytics.

Jamshed most recently worked at State Street Corporation as director of quantitative risk analytics for model governance.

In addition, Sandeep Maira has joined OCC as first vice president and head of risk-solution delivery and support. He is charged with maintaining OCC’s custom-built software, ensuring its IT systems align with its business objectives and help with OCC’s move to cloud computing, according to the company. He was most recently global head of risk, compliance and financial regulatory reporting technology with BNY Mellon.

‘We are very pleased to bring these talented individuals on board,’ Davidson says in a statement. ‘These appointments demonstrate OCC’s continued ability to attract the best talent as we work to stay ahead of risk, foster innovation and lead the US equity options industry in developing further efficiencies and growth.’