Exotix pushes beyond the wild frontier
Peter Bartlett began his financial career at Lloyds Bank International and Lloyds Merchant Bank in 1987 and has always worked in emerging markets. He was head of eastern Europe/Africa trading at Morgan Grenfell in the early 1990s, and afterwards head of eastern European sales at Banque Indosuez between 1994 and 1997. He then joined BNP as head of illiquid asset trading but left in 1998 after he says banks "lost their nerve" for emerging markets following the Asian and Russian financial crises. He went on to set up his own boutique brokerage, and a year later met a director of Icap at a wedding. Two days later, he was introduced to Icap’s chief executive, Michael Spencer. Within a week they had signed a joint venture, and in November 1999 Exotix was registered with the UK’s Financial Services Authority as a brokerage company owned 60% by Icap and 40% by Bartlett, its new managing director.