About
An independent venue, run by people from the market
OptAxe was founded by FX practitioners who spent their careers on the sales and trading side of options desks. The company is independent, based in London, and authorised by the FCA to operate a multilateral trading facility.
Why we built it
The market electronified everything except the hard part
Spot and FX swaps moved to screens. Pricing engines and curve construction improved. Distribution of options risk did not: it stayed in chats, calls and emails, and the cost of that fell on every desk in the market. We built a regulated venue that treats the axe as the unit of liquidity discovery, so that interest can be posted, found and traded with the discretion OTC markets have always needed.
We think OTC FX options will electronify the way other asset classes have, and that access to a neutral, regulated network of interests is critical to improve liquidity discovery and matching.
Company
| Legal name | OptAxe Limited |
| Registered in | England and Wales, company number 13361894 |
| Regulator | Financial Conduct Authority, FRN 1002237 |
| Permissions | Operating a multilateral trading facility (MTF) Arranging (bringing about) deals in investments Making arrangements with a view to transactions in investments View the full entry on the FCA Financial Services Register |
| Address | 6 Brook Street, London W1S 1BB |
| Telephone | +44 330 043 1499 |
Leadership
The team
Team
The people who build and run the venue
Lefteris Tatakis
Senior Engineer
Lefteris is a Senior Software Engineer who has worked across multiple roles and industries, now focusing on back-end development, with expertise in APIs and authentication.
Dave O'Brien
Senior Engineer
Dave brings over 20 years of expertise in crafting user-centric web applications for leading brands across various industries.
Ali Dever-Chapman
Engineer
Ali is a Backend Engineer with over 7 years' experience building scalable, production-ready systems in TypeScript and Node.js, across fintech, cybersecurity and public sector platforms.
Tom Stringer
Engineer
Tom is a Software Engineer who has built full-stack applications across various domains, with specific experience in cybersecurity and building agentic software.
Advisory Board
Experienced counsel from across the market
Gemma Laman
Gemma is a Managing Director at HSBC and Global Head of the FX Solutions Sales team, responsible for the strategic direction of the team as well as the origination of new business and the management of clients globally across FX Prime Brokerage, FX Overlay and FX solutions for Custody. Gemma also previously held the role of Global Head of FX Prime Brokerage. Gemma holds a degree in Politics and Philosophy from the University of East Anglia.
Bryant Park
Bryant was recently Global Head of FX Sales and Head of EMEA Pension Insurance Solution Sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Bryant spent 22 years at Goldman Sachs with roles including Head of FICC Institutional Sales Tokyo, FI Derivatives HF Sales, Equity Derivative Sales Tokyo, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management Chicago. Bryant was also a FICC Markets Standards Board Member up until 2022 and has an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Guy Saidenberg
Guy is an industry veteran who has run global divisions at investment banks. He is now an angel investor and advisor to platform businesses. Most recently he was Global Co-Head of Markets at Barclays. Prior to that, Guy spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs running various departments, including Emerging Markets, FX, Commodities, Sales Strats and the Securities Division Digital Strategy. Guy has a PhD in Financial Economics from the University of Chicago.
Dipak Shah
Dipak has over 20 years of experience as a trader across the sell and buy side, with strong involvement in the FX options market throughout his career. He has managed several FX trading businesses, most recently as Managing Director and Head of FX Options Trading at Nomura.
Tim Stack
Tim is a seasoned capital markets leader with more than 25 years of experience in cross-asset execution, post-trade clearing, and market structure transformation. During his tenure at Barclays, Tim led the Prime Clearing and Execution business, overseeing Global Futures Execution and Clearing, OTC Clearing, and FX Prime Brokerage. Tim also represented Barclays on key industry boards, including FIA Global, FIA Europe, and Redi EMS.
Governance
The board, senior managers under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, and the compliance and risk functions are set out in the MIFIDPRU 8 disclosure.
Disclosures