HSBC’s Derek Saunders Elected Chair; KeyCorp’s Jeffery Weaver Vice Chair
New York, NY – The International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers is announcing today Derek Saunders, Global Head of Portfolio Management at HSBC, will serve as Chair of the Association, while Jeffery Weaver, Executive Vice President & Group Head, Credit Portfolio Management at KeyCorp, will serve as Vice Chair. Additionally, Bank of America’s Randy Miller was elected Treasurer and Sarah Cheriton of Lloyds Banking Group was elected Secretary.
“I am delighted to chair the IACPM at this key time when material changes in the regulatory and economic environment are re-shaping the Banking and Financial Services sector,” commented Mr. Saunders. “I believe that credit portfolio management functions are particularly well positioned to help respond to these changes and I look forward to working with our members for the benefit of our firms, our clients and the IACPM.”
The IACPM is celebrating its Tenth Anniversary this year. The Association was formed in late 2001 by eleven founding member firms. Today, the IACPM has 90 firms in 17 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Membership includes credit portfolio managers responsible for managing the corporate loan portfolios and other exposures at banks, insurance companies and asset managers.
Over the last ten years, CPM functions have been successfully tested through material downturns, including the credit crisis in 2008. In many institutions, the function is now being used in a wider variety of applications and the IACPM is helping to promote the concept that CPM can be used to help drive strategic decisions at the senior management level.
It is widely understood that “Credit portfolio management is key to making informed decisions at the point of origination, but I would like to see continued momentum in the number of firms using CPM as a function to support decisions around capital allocation and strategic direction, very relevant issues in the current environment,” said Mr. Saunders.
The IACPM has been particularly active over the last few years working with global regulators as they implement new regulations in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis. The Association was especially outspoken in promoting change in the Fair Value Option accounting rules for loans hedged with credit default swaps, and is pleased appropriate modification are likely to be approved soon.
“The IACPM has worked hard to increase transparency and reduce risk while, at the same time, trying to make sure we avoid unintended and potentially negative consequences,” said Som-lok Leung, Executive Director of the IACPM. “In the case of accounting rules applied to credit portfolio management, the accounting mismatch created by current rules creates a disincentive to hedge and reduce risk. We want to align accounting results with the true economics of hedged loan portfolios, and the proposed changes move us in that direction.”
As Global head of Portfolio Management, Global Banking and Markets, Mr. Saunders has been responsible for implementing an active portfolio management strategy with regional teams covering key disciplines in all core geographies. The initiative is aligned with the underlying Global Banking and Markets strategic business model and CPM spans risk/return at origination, performance measurement, portfolio composition and secondary market execution.
At KeyCorp, Mr. Weaver and his team are responsible for the development and implementation of economic capital optimization strategies for Key’s $58 billion wholesale credit portfolio. Mr. Weaver also serves on the Credit Risk and Market Risk Committees at KeyCorp and is Chair of the institution’s Real Estate Concentration Committee.
Also serving on the Board of Directors in 2012 are James Baldino, Union Bank, Olivier Belorgey, Credit Agricole CIB, Davide Crippa, Standard Chartered, Yuji Harada, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Richard Henshall, Westpac, Mark Hughes, RBC Capital Markets, Som-lok Leung, IACPM, Dan Norman, ING Group, Masaki Shimoda, Mizuho Corporate Bank, Kevin Starrett, Citigroup, Mario Verna, Deutsche Bank and Carlos Alfredo Vianna, Banco Itau. Sean Kavanagh of Citigroup serves in the ex officio position of Chairman Emeritus.
About IACPM
The IACPM, with 90 member institutions located in 17 countries, is a professional association dedicated to the advancement of credit portfolio management. Founded in 2001, the organization’s programs of meetings, benchmark studies, research and collaboration are designed to increase awareness of the value and function of credit portfolio management among financial markets worldwide, and to discuss and resolve issues of common interest to its members.