through a network of distributors. The Structured Notes are settled through the Clearstream clearing system to investors who purchase and hold the structured notes through their custodian bank. Some of the Structured Notes issued by Marex Financial are listed on the Vienna MTF, a multilateral trading facility operated by the Vienna Stock Exchange.
In addition, we provide liquidity in the secondary market for our Structured Notes. As part of our risk management strategy, the Structured Notes are hedged through a combination of exchange traded derivatives and OTC trades with top-tier investment banks. Marex Financial also operates an alternative structured notes program, the Tier 2 Program, which, due to the long-dated term of the structured notes issued thereunder, enables the Tier 2 Notes to qualify as Tier 2 capital for the purposes of our regulatory capital requirements.
We had $1,850.4 million of debt securities in issue as of December 31, 2023, issued under the Structured Notes Program and Public Offer Program, which included $7.4 million of structured notes issued under our Tier 2 Program. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Debt Programs.”
Our Principal Markets
EMEA
We are headquartered in London, with offices in Paris, Versailles, Dublin, Milan, Bruchköbel, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Madrid, the DIFC and Tel Aviv. We had 567, 403 and 337 front-office employees (excluding contractors and consultants) in Europe as of December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively, with 435, 360 and 298 of these front-office employees based at our head office in London as of the same periods.
Americas
We have offices in New York, Chicago, Houston, Stamford, Miami, San Francisco, Des Moines, Clark, Saint Louis Park, Red Bank, Richmond, Schaumburg, Calgary Montreal and Campinas. Our North American energy business is based in our Houston office, our agricultural business is based in Chicago and our New York office focuses on our financial products. The number of front-office employees (excluding contractors and consultants) in North America was 437, 373 and 256 as of December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
APAC
We have offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. In addition to clients served by our Asia desks, our European and North American offices have a growing base of clients located in Asia that are principally served by our London and New York desks. The number of front-office employees (excluding contractors and consultants) in APAC was 117, 70 and 50 as of December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
Our Clients
We are able to directly serve and intermediate a broad range of clients unlike other service providers in the inter-dealer brokerage industry where end-client relationships are largely dominated by banks.
Our clients include large blue chip commodity producers, consumers and merchants, brokers, trading houses, asset managers, international banks, commodity trading advisors and hedge funds.
Over the years, our client base has shifted away from traditional commodity producers and consumers to reflect a more diverse mix of market participants, including U.S. asset managers, banks
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