Commodities and Forex broker INTL FCStone Inc (NASDAQ:INTL) has announced that its President Scott Branch will resign his position effective October 1. Mr. Branch’s President title will be held for the time being by current CEO Sean O’Connor.
The company claims that this was part of a ‘planned transition’ in which Mr. Branch was scheduled to retire at the end of 2016, although he is only 53 years old.
INTL FCStone has had a series of run-ins with regulators recently. In August the company was assessed a $200,000 penalty by the CFTC for failure to supervise swaps trading. And in May, INTL FCStone received a $140,000 CFTC fine for account supervision violations. The company also lost high-profile hire Matthew Avery, who after being hired away from Integral Systems as Head of eFX Distribution at INTL FCStone rejoined Integral after just five months.
We wonder if the change in management, and the hastening of Mr. Branch’s departure, had something to do with these issues.
INTL FCStone also announced the appointments of Xuong Nguyen as COO and Tricia Harrod as Chief Risk Officer. Mr. Nguyen was promoted from his current position as EVP of the FCM Division of INTL FCStone Financial Inc., a subsidiary of the Company. Ms. Harrod presently serves as Global Head of Risk for INTL FCStone and its subsidiaries.
To see the official press release on Scott Branch’s departure click here.