SecondMarket, which serves as a secondary marketplace for illiquid assets, has launched what it says is the first centralized market for asset-backed securities.

The firm will open a hedge fund servicing office in São Paulo to serve its South American clients.

Deutsche Bank’s prime brokerage has added a hedge fund veteran to head its hedge fund consulting practice.

British prime brokerages face a raft of new rules on how they use client money, as U.K. regulators seek to avoid a repeat of the Lehman Brothers disaster.

London-based Mulvaney Capital Management has done away with its investor relations chief, leaving the US$89 million firm with no one focused exclusively on marketing or client dealings.

Citigroup is continuing its aggressive build-up of its prime brokerage team with 13 new hires, including teams from Barclays Capital and Morgan Stanley.

The new additions to Citi’s global prime finance group are based in New York and London, and are led by John Nicholson, named a managing director of U.S. trading, and Eric Hughson, who joins the European trading team.

The bank said it has increased the number of its Asia prime finance staffers by about 20% over the past year-and-a-half.

Olusegun Aganga, who is based in London, heads Goldman’s hedge fund consulting services.

Corzine was named chairman and CEO of MF Global Holdings, the futures brokerage spun off from the Man Group three years ago, and will become and operating partner of private equity firm J.C. Flowers.

Hedge fund risk management shop Castle Hall Alternatives is expanding its Halifax, Nova Scotia, headquarters with the help of the province’s government.