The wealth management arm of London-listed financial services group Collins Stewart has launched a new desk to provide specialised brokerage services to listed companies, their employees and third party share plan administrators.

Leading Collins Stewart Wealth Management’s Corporate Executive and Employee Trading (CEET) desk is Michael Smith, who was most recently head of Credit Suisse’s corporate trading desk. In this role he was responsible for developing the Swiss bank’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) franchise across the UK.

The services provided by CSWM’s CEET desk will include: the custody, monitoring and execution of tradeable and restricted shares and stock options; multi-currency dealing, electronic trading, warehousing and cross- border transactions and spousal transfers. Clients will also be offered access to the firm’s financial planning, portfolio management and advisory stockbroking services, CSWM said in a statement.

“Employee compensation issues may be unfashionable, but many of our existing fiduciary and corporate clients have significant needs for specialist brokerage solutions in this area that we believe we can serve well,” said Neil Darke, head of CSWM, adding that Mr Smith is well-placed to lead the new initiative as he has many years of specialist experience in this area.

In addition to Mr Smith, CSWM’s CEET desk is currently manned by two brokers, along with back- and middle-office support staff. However, with the desk's current pipeline of work, CSWM is hoping to recruit further staff in the coming months, a spokesperson told WealthBriefing.

The CEET desk will focus on mid-sized companies which have not chosen to outsource administration to a third party provider and instead require a broker to work with their in-house share plan team. However, CSWM still plans to work with larger firms that have outsourced their share plan administration, adding its brokerage expertise to these companies’ existing support services and web portal offerings.

CSWM is also keen to emphasise that while some competitors only want to deal with executive-level staff - creating a "two-tier" experience - the CEET desk is aiming to provide all participants with a leading service experience.