“Paul epitomised our motto “Once a dealer always a dealer”. In the last look window of life, our great FX industry will look back on Paul’s ground-breaking contributions for many years to come. ACI and the Ancient Marketeers bid farewell to one of our “greats”, for the Dog has barked his last. Rest in Peace Paul”
EULOGY – MEMORIAL SERVICE 7 NOVEMBER 2018
David Woolcock – Chair, ACI CFP, friend and colleague
Paul started a long and illustrious career in 1974 at Hambros Bank, before moving to Chemical Bank for seven years where he was immersed in the world of spot dollar/mark in the days of “yours” and “mine”, in an FX industry that was traded by “voice” through the brokers.
Known for barking orders down the lines of his brokers and in an era when we had nicknames, he became known as ‘the Dog’. His dollar/swiss trader was ‘the Parrot’; so called because he sat on Paul’s shoulders following what was going on in dollar/mark!
After 7 years at Chemical Paul joined the FX division of Bank of America and ran that division during its heyday, and powering it up the rankings at a time of great competition between banks. Paul was always known for being ahead of the game and during his time at Bank of America represented the bank’s stakeholder position on the board of EBS. He has always been a passionate advocate of electronic trading and was instrumental in EBS’s success.
He is fabled as the pioneer who broke the deadlock surrounding the launch of EBS. At one meeting, just before going live, it was emphasised that for EBS to succeed it required that a dominant position was achieved in at least some major currency pairs very quickly, which required dealing room heads to “change their dealers’ [trading] behaviour”. This caused something of a split amongst Board members, with more than one saying “we can’t tell our dealers how to trade”.
Paul was having none of it and in true Paul fashion remarked “What do you mean you can’t? I can. That’s why I’m the Chief Dealer. They will trade exactly how and where I tell them”.
Following his long stint on the sell-side Paul moved in 1996 to the buyside and set up C View. The name of the company came from his Isle of Wight holiday home with the nautical name Sea View where he enjoyed many lovely family holidays. More recently he would speak lovingly of his Florida holiday home and fell in love with that American state.
It also had the advantage of giving him a base to attend Jazz festivals to feed his passion for music, with a varied taste that included a love of rock and roll.
At that firm Paul became a pioneer in so many areas, not least his advocacy of the e-channel for trading, not only in developed markets but also emerging markets. Indeed, he was pivotally involved in multi-bank platform developments and at FXAll we enjoyed his wise counsel that shaped many aspects of that platform.
A great thinker on matters to do with Foreign Exchange it was inevitable that Paul would reacquaint himself with ACI. He joined the ACI FXC and his impact was immediate and certainly made our debates much livelier! During this time, I worked closely with him on aspects of the Model Code with long debates (over a drink or three) about how ACI would frame its guidance to the market. With the debate over ‘last look’ heating up I made Paul chair of a CFP working group into last look and all market participants, including Central Banks and regulators, sought out our views on how to approach this tricky matter. He framed the debate and managed to find a balanced stance that all could agree on. If you have ever tried herding cats, you will realise what a magnificent achievement this was!
This led naturally to him being appointed as ACI’s first full time Director of Education. In this role, he worked tirelessly to promote ACI’s services, particularly ELAC, in support of the new Global Code and to continue ACI’s influence in guiding industry best practice.
Paul’s passing is a great loss to our industry and to the family of which he was so proud. He was a devoted family man outside of work and through his charitable endeavours put back into society, with as much enthusiasm as he gave to the FX industry. Truly an ACI man and role model to us all.
ACI UK is devastated at the loss of their colleague, supporter and friend Paul Chappell. Paul was a stalwart of the foreign exchange market – both as a veteran market practitioner with a long and illustrious career and as a committed proponent of industry best practice. We will all miss him very much.
Sue Attwood, President, ACI UK
Private tribute: Paul’s death was unexpected and shocking. He still took the time to call me and say goodbye, showing a strength of character that I found extremely humbling. He came late to the ACI UK committee and our time together was too short, but nonetheless impactful.
He was a good friend to us as a whole and to me personally, I will miss his counsel, which was usually wise (but not always heeded) and his strong and reliable presence. I will also miss his giggle and his exasperation at being on the wrong end of our jokes, both happened all too infrequently. A sad loss.
Tina Kane, long-time friend and ACI colleague
Paul was the epitome of an ‘industry veteran’, having enjoyed a long, illustrious and varied career in financial markets. He was, particularly, at the forefront of the modern foreign exchange industry, initially on the ‘sell side’ with roles at Chemical Bank and for a long period, Bank of America, where in the late 80s and early 90s he was a major influence in the development, launch and take up of EBS (Electronic Broking Services).
An active and vociferous member of the original EBS consortium (representing Bank of America’s stakeholder interests) Paul’s commitment and support for the (then) market-changing EBS proposition, and his determination to ‘change dealer behaviour’ to trade on EBS contributed greatly to its early market adoption (and huge success).
Paul went on to create C-View, an FCA-regulated Investment Manager named rather neatly after his holiday home in the Isle of Wight, Sea View, where he enjoyed many happy vacations with his young family – and which he occasionally ‘shared’ with friends. As Chief Investment Officer of C-View, Paul managed a number of successful currency funds, at the same time gaining first hand insight into the ‘buy side’ experience of trading relationships and more recently, the challenges of implementing mandates and directives like EMIR and MiFID. He channelled this experience into providing consultancy to other market participants and regulators.
A long-standing and active participant of ACI’s Foreign Exchange Committee, in the past few years Paul had stepped up his involvement in ACI activities considerably, first joining the ACI UK Executive Committee to support its local efforts and then, in 2017, becoming ACI’s first full time Director of Education. In this role, he worked tirelessly to promote ACI’s services in support of the new Global Code and to continue ACI’s influence in guiding industry best practice. He was especially engaged with ongoing industry debate around ‘last look’, chairing the ACI Working Group on the subject and bringing a voice of reason to this controversial topic.
At a time in his life when he could have taken life much more easily – and with plans in place to enjoy his retirement with his wife Anne now his children were grown – he chose instead to embark on this new ‘career’, travelling extensively to spread the ACI word at industry conferences and events, meeting regulators and industry groups across the globe, and supporting ACI National Associations.
On a personal level, Paul was a committed Christian and devoted family man whose great pride in all of his family’s achievements were evident to everybody who met him. We will all miss him very much; this is a great loss to ACI, to our industry and to so many of us personally.
Alan (Shoulders) Clark, Vice President, ACI UK
Legend is an overused word these days but in the case of the FX markets and Paul Chappell I can think of nothing more appropriate. A straight talker with so much knowledge and enthusiasm who worked hard to give something back to an industry he helped shape.
Ashley Daffin, ACI UK Education lead
Ever since I can remember, Paul was a shining light in the financial markets and it has been my very great honour and privilege to finally get to work with him over the last year or so.
It is impossible to measure the contribution he made during his life, but a sense can be gleaned by the enormous gap his passing has created; a gap which no one can fill. He was a great man who still guides me in my day to day life and who will be remembered for a long time to come.
David Clark, Honorary President ACI, ACI UK
I am really shocked and saddened by this news. He was a real friend and a great competitor in the 70s and 80s and was one of the true greats of the FX market in so many ways.
Anna Marie Rothenstein, friend and ACI colleague
I first met Paul in the early eighties when I joined Chemical as a grad trainee in what was known then as Chemical Bank Treasury, these days it would be FICC or Treasury and Capital Markets. Paul was the deputy Chief Dealer on the Spot desk, Guy Heald was the Chief Trader ($/¥), Paul, also known as ‘the Dog’, (not sure why) traded $/DMK. Dave, the $/CHF trader was ‘the Parrot’…always on ‘the Dog’s shoulder following what happened in $/DMK.
I recall Paul with a handset/telephone in his left hand, cigarette in his right hand as he simultaneously clicked on the Broker switches on the dealer board calling for prices in $/DMK. Both he and Guy used to ‘take the ****’, very unPC, when I called German banks asking, at Paul’s request/demand, for prices, as I pronounced Deutschmark with the German pronunciation ‘Day Mark’. So the joke was ‘Day mark- night mark’.
In those days, we took it with a ‘pinch of salt’ – a little bit of banter never harmed anyone -and Paul was always very fair and a complete professional. After both Paul and I left Chemical, and I moved from cash into derivatives, we lost contact.
Around 7 years ago when we in the ACI FXC were looking for new members for this Committee, I mentioned Paul’s name to Stephane Malrait and David Woolcock as a potential member. I had seen Paul recently moderate a panel at an FX week conference. Paul joined the FXC and we rekindled a professional relationship, which blossomed into a valued friendship and dialogue.
Over the past few years Paul and I often telephoned and chatted about regulation, the impact of regulation on the FX markets, the Global Code, ACIFXC, etc. I miss those calls, as I am sure we all miss Paul’s very positive spirit and presence.
Chris Cox, formerly Bank of England, now BNPP
It’s times like this that you really do take a step back and look at how precious life is. I know Paul and David Woolcock were colleagues and friends for many a year, and my thoughts are with you all. The FX dream team will live on, I have no doubt.
Andrew Brodie BNPP previously FCA
He will be greatly missed – my colleagues Andy Baxter and Mark Shepherd join with me in sending our condolences to his family.
Diane Meikle, WBR
We are all shocked and saddened over here at WBR. He was always such a help to me in my research for the TradeTech FX event, and has been a key part of these events for years. Please let us know if there is anything we can do.
Keith Sedergreen, ACI FMA and ACI Australia
I’m still coming to terms with this very sad news, especially after spending time with Paul in Basle and him telling me of his plans to visit the US in July. I enjoyed Paul’s contribution to ACI over the past couple of important years and will miss him. ACI is the poorer without his knowledge and input.
Tjork Methorst, ACI FXC
What a blow. His knowledge and personality will be missed greatly.
Henry Wilkes
So sad and such a huge loss to the FX industry.
Asif Razaq ACI FXC
Paul is a true legend in FX. He will be greatly missed.
Wolfgang Koester FiREapps
I am very sorry to hear that. He will be missed.
Jon Healey, ACI UK and BBVA
I did not know Paul well, but always found him to be incredibly impressive, and the loss of a person of such intelligence and integrity is nothing short of tragic.
Chris Knight, ACI FXC and XTX Markets
Paul was leading from the front with regard to global code and market education.
Roger Rutherford
The man was an absolute legend of the market.
Jorn (Luffe) Sodborg, ACI FXC and Jyske Bank
Paul was a true gentleman, fighting hard for a better market for everyone. RIP Paul.
Katie Martin, Financial Times
He was a true gentleman of the market who helped me out on countless occasions, and I always enjoyed chatting to him.
Trevor Neil, Technical Analyst and Educator
What a loss to the industry.
Liam Crellin, Standard Chartered
I greatly appreciated his input and thoughts on a variety of FX matters. My condolences to his family and all the team at ACI.
David Faulkner, Fluent Technology
Paul was an icon to me and fellow FX market starters in the early 90s, and whom I was lucky to chat to on many an occasion later on in my career.
Alan Scott, Smartmoney Dealing
Truly a good and interesting friend.
John Farrell
Paul always had time to chat about new ideas and would give me that look over his glasses like a disapproving headmaster: “What have you got to sell me now Farrell?”
Andrew Priest, Equinix
A true champion of the FX market and a true gent with it. RIP Paul – you will be sorely missed.
Hugh Whelan, EBS CME
Paul was a genuine gentleman
Jeremy Smart, XTX Markets
It certainly helps to put all of our industry’s nonsense into perspective but much more, it’s just a personal tragedy. He was such a good man and an old school nice bloke, and there aren’t enough of those.”
Glen Sargeant, Curex Group
The FX market has lost one of its leading figures.
Guy Hopkins, FairExchange
A true legend in our market and a true gentleman. I was speechless when I heard the news. So very sad.
Roger Lee, BidFX
Very sad moment for the FX marketplace. A true benchmark in the world of e-forex.