Clear Street Brings In Marex Prime Clearing Head as It Ramps Up Expansion

Clear Street has tapped industry veteran Mark Daniels as its new head of platform sales in New York, a move that adds another heavyweight to the quick-growing U.S. prime broker’s senior bench.

Daniels, who confirmed the appointment on social media, brings more than two decades of experience in prime brokerage and clearing. He most recently led prime clearing at Marex, the London-based commodities and financial markets group that has been broadening its clearing franchise since its 2024 Nasdaq listing.

Before Marex, Daniels held a string of senior posts at bulge-bracket banks. He was a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and for UBS’s execution and clearing unit, covering electronic execution, OTC clearing and FX prime brokerage. Earlier in his career, he worked at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

The hire comes at a pivotal moment for Clear Street, which has been steadily bulking up as an independent, . Founded in 2018, the firm has raised $435 million from Prysm Capital and others at a $2 billion valuation, and has pitched itself as a modern, cloud-native alternative to the established bank platforms. Its technology is designed to replace the patchwork legacy systems that dominate clearing, custody and financing across markets.

Over the past two years, Clear Street has broadened its reach beyond equities. It acquired Instinet’s Fox River algorithmic trading business, launched futures clearing, and won to clear for registered options market-makers. This summer it also expanded its headquarters at 4 World Trade Center to house its growing workforce.

The leadership roster has been refreshed as well. In July, the firm brought in Chris Tufano, a near-nine-year Bank of America veteran, as head of clearing. In May, it hired former UBS executive Morgan Ralph to spearhead its new , just two months later than UBS abruptly pulled out of that line. Daniels’ arrival rounds out the top team with a front-end sales chief who can plug his deep purchase-side network into Clear Street’s expanding platform.

For Marex, Daniels’ departure comes later than a period of rapid expansion in its own right. The broker, best known for its commodities roots, has built a sizeable non-bank clearing arm. It acquired ED&F Man Capital Markets in 2022 and completed the purchase of Cowen’s prime brokerage and outsourced trading businesses at the end of 2023, bringing in roughly 160 staff across eight offices. Marex floated on Nasdaq last year and has reported strong growth in clearing revenues since. Losing the head of prime clearing, however, highlights the intense competition for talent in the sector.

That competition is being stoked by regulatory capital rules that continue to squeeze bank balance sheets, creating openings for non-bank providers. Hedge funds and proprietary traders looking for financing and clearing have been turning to firms like Marex, BTIG and Clear Street to fill gaps left by the global banks. Outsourced trading is another hotly contested area, with Clear Street’s new desk viewking to pick up clients left adrift later than UBS exited the business in March.

Daniels now steps into a role where the task is to  convert his long-standing client relationships into new mandates for Clear Street’s clearing, financing and trading services. With a growing technology stack and a beefed-up leadership team, the New York broker is setting itself up as a serious contender in a market where nimble, well-funded non-bank platforms are increasingly setting the pace.