About Us

Company history

From day one, we decided that HQLA^x would be a platform built by the market, for the market.

Founded by financial market practitioners in search of a solution:

HQLA^x was born out of first-hand experience of the frustrations and pain-points deriving from inefficient collateral mobility.

Developed in partnership with Tier 1 organisations:

Global Custodians and Triparty Agents including Bank of New York Mellon, BNP Securities Services, Citibank, Clearstream, Euroclear, and J.P. Morgan.

We have been operating successfully since 2017 in a highly regulated market. We have 12+ Tier 1 strategic partners across the industry.

We were the first to complete a security lending transaction on blockchain (2018), and the first to demonstrate a cross-chain repo swap (Dec 2022).

Guido Stroemer

Co-founder and CEO

Guido is a financial market veteran with over 25 years of professional work experience in a variety of trading, risk management and senior leadership positions, most recently as global head of repo trading at UBS.

Olly Benkert

Co-founder and Chairman

Olly is an Investment Banking veteran having spent over two decades at Goldman Sachs.

Jens Hachmeister

Managing Director, DLT Assets -
Deutsche Börse

Jens Hachmeister is part of the management team of Deutsche Börse Group and with the company since 2000. After holding a number of management positions such as Chief HR Officer and Chief of Staff, he is now focusing on new technologies. As a Managing Director Jens is responsible for the group wide business development in the field of DLT, Digital Assets and New Market Structures since April 2018. Prior to joining DBG he initially worked as a management consultant at KPMG. Jens Hachmeister holds a degree in business administration.

David Rutter

Founder and CEO - R3

David E Rutter is the founder and CEO of R3, an enterprise software company empowering the next generation of blockchain innovation through its flagship platform, Corda. Since 2015, he has grown the company of over 250 employees in 13 countries to become the leading enterprise blockchain provider and has built a thriving ecosystem of more than 300 diverse firms building on and supporting the platform globally.

Simon Squire

Global Head of Product Management
for the Clearance and Collateral Management
Business - BNY Mellon

Simon is the Global Head of Product Management for the Clearance and Collateral Management Business at BNY Mellon, driving the business strategy and leading initiatives that enhance client experience and product capabilities, including strategic partnerships with external firms. Prior to joining BNY Mellon in 2017, Simon spent over a decade at Goldman Sachs.

Mathew McDermott

Managing Director - Global Head of
Digital Assets - Goldman Sachs

Mathew is global head of Digital Assets for Goldman Sachs, having held a number of different roles since joining in 2005, most recently global head of Cross Asset Financing. Mathew is a board member of the International Securities Lending Association and serves on a number of committees at GS, notably the Goldman Sachs International Asset and Liability Committee and the Goldman Sachs International Bank Management Committee. Prior to joining the firm, Mathew worked at Morgan Stanley.

Frédéric Pascal

Head of Market & Financing Services - BNPP

Frédéric has nearly 20 years experience in BNP Paribas, for over 9 years he has held the position of Head of ALM Treasury & Chief Financial Resources Officer and has recently been appointed Head of Market & Financing Services.

Marton Szigeti

Global Head - Banking, Funding
and Financing - Clearstream

Marton Szigeti is the Clearstream Global Head of Banking, Funding and Financing. Prior to joining Clearstream, Marton spent 7 years at Deutsche Bank, where he held a variety of senior roles. He also spent time at Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan where he focused on market structure strategy and principal strategic investments.

Scott Lucas

Managing Director,
Head of Markets DLT - J.P. Morgan

Scott is the Head of Markets DLT at J.P. Morgan where he is responsible for building DLT based trading businesses, and representing J.P. Morgan on select industry initiatives and wider market developments related to DLT. Scott joined the Markets business after roles within the Chief Investment Office, Treasury, Global Corporate Bank and Treasury Services. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 2010, Scott served as an Infantry Officer for 13 years, in the Australian and then British Army.

Jamie Anderson

Managing Director,
Global Head of Collateral Treasury Trading - HSBC

Jamie Anderson’s primary responsibility is the Global Head of Collateral Treasury Trading, based in London. His remit includes managing the funding and liquidity for Global Markets division, cross asset collateral optimisation as well as providing secured financing solutions for clients. He also manages Financial Resource Optimisation for Securities Financing and jointly leads the Prime Services Client Pricing and Analytics Team. Jamie has 20+ years of securities finance experience. Prior to working at HSBC he held trading roles at Citadel in the Portfolio Financing area and JPMorgan/Bear Stearns in Prime Finance. He started his career at Goldman Sachs.