Piya brings over 20 years of experience in delivering business efficiencies and transformation via technology, product development, technology infrastructure, and client solutions. She was most recently at Credit Agricole CIB (Corporate & Investment Bank), where she was Managing Director and Head of the Technology and Process Group, Global Markets Division. In her career to date, Piya has held several senior technology delivery roles, including at RBC Capital Markets, Standard Chartered Bank and UBS Investment Bank.

Piya will replace Peel Hunt’s current CTO, Aaqib Mirza, who will remain in the business during a transitional period before moving to RetailBook as CEO once the platform is established as an independent company.

Aaqib has been CTO of Peel Hunt for 14 years, overseeing significant transformation of the bank’s technology capabilities during this time. Most recently he has led on establishing REX, a technology platform owned and operated by Peel Hunt that provides opportunities for retail investors to take part in IPO, follow-on placings and retail bond investment opportunities. Recently rebranded as RetailBook, the platform is on track to operate as a standalone entity independently of Peel Hunt in the coming months. At this point, Aaqib will be appointed CEO of the platform.

Steven Fine, Chief Executive of Peel Hunt, comments:

“Technology is at the heart of everything we do as a leading investment bank, delivering innovative client solutions and future-proofing our business. We’re proud to have Piya join us as CTO. Her background in delivering best-in-class solutions for both clients and business infrastructure is extremely impressive, and she will make an excellent addition to our management team.

“I want to thank Aaqib for his time at Peel Hunt and look forward to continuing to work closely with him as he takes the RetailBook platform to its next stage. He has made a tremendous contribution to Peel Hunt in ensuring that all parts of our business have had the solutions they need to stay ahead of the industry.”

Piya Khanna, Chief Technology Officer, Peel Hunt, added:

“Peel Hunt is a technological powerhouse that uses cutting edge technology across the entire business, including advanced data management and visualisation,liquidity provision, execution, security as well as a myriad of other technologies to ensure employees have the right tools to perform at their best. It’s a company that prides itself on its entrepreneurial culture and wanting to push the boundaries of investment banking.

“I’m excited to be a part of the team and help deliver on Peel Hunt’s ambitions.”

Peel Hunt has an in-house team of software engineers and uses a variety of proprietary and other technologies across the business. For example, Peel Hunt’s Execution Services team uses proprietary technology to facilitate market making in over 11,000 instruments and its trading team process 1.2 million combined quotes and trades per day, which represents 13.3% of all trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Peel Hunt is also developing AI and its use within the firm to make proprietary data even more valuable and further empower its sales teams.

Peel Hunt’s technology is split into different sections: Alpha Technology, the systems that facilitate liquidity provision, execution and risk management; Enterprise Technology which maintains the firm’s support functions such as operations, risk & compliance and HR; and Infrastructure Technology, which delivers the core IT and cybersecurity functions across the business.