The man credited with building the London Stock Exchange's first electronic trading system and now at the helm of Credit Suisse's algorithmic trading divisions - one of the most well-regarded in Europe, is leaving to join an agency broker that challenges them both.

Richard Balarkas, a Credit Suisse managing director and head of Advanced Execution Service, the bank's award-winning algorithmic trading service, is to leave the Swiss bank after 14 years to join Instinet, the agency broker owned by Japanese bank Nomura.