One of Europe's largest high-speed trading firms has hired an executive from Bank of America Merrill Lynch's markets division to run its compliance function, making him the third former employee from the US bank to join in a senior role.

Spire Europe, an affiliate of Tower Research Capital, has hired Alistair McGrath to run compliance. McGrath joined in April, having previously spent nearly a decade at BAML, most recently as head of equities compliance and surveillance for its sales and trading business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to his LinkedIn profile.