A new player in Wall Street trading has made a key hire

Elia Locardi

Mizuho, the Japanese bank with big ambitions in Wall Street trading, has made a key hire.

The bank has hired Massimo Tassan-Solet, a former Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank executive, as head of derivatives trading. He will report to Thomas Hartnett, head of fixed income sales and trading, and play a key role in the build out of Mizuho’s derivatives platform.

Tassan-Solet is a former head of US dollar interest rate options trading at Deutsche Bank, working with Hartnett at the German bank. He was most recently at a hedge fund.

“As we continue to invest in our product capabilities for clients, his background in business development, risk management and trading technology make him a great addition to the Mizuho team,” Hartnett said.

Mizuho has set out ambitious growth plans for its fixed income business in the US. Jerry Rizzieri, CEO of Mizuho Securities USA, told Business Insider last year that the bank wanted to make headway in the largest revenue pool in the world.

“We’re in the fourth or fifth inning of our build out, and still expanding our product mix, whereas most of our competitors have been at this a lot longer and have much more infrastructure, and as a result, much more to lose. We’re in a different spot.”

The hire of Tassan-Solet is especially noteworthy, as Mizuho has been focused on putting its balance sheet to work in the derivatives business. In particular, Mizuho is focused on winning business in interest rate derivatives, cross-currency derivatives, and corporate derivative solutions.

“We don’t have the burden of having much legacy balance sheet, so we can be more flexible than some of our competitors can,” Hartnett told Business Insider last year.