New York, NY – The International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers today announced its 2007 Board of Directors and officers. Keith Ho, Global Head of Portfolio Management at Barclays Capital will serve as Chair, while Allan Yarish of Societe Generale will serve as Vice Chair. Rounding out the Association’s new officer team, Don Noe of JP Morgan is the new Treasurer and Davide Crippa of Swiss Re is the new Secretary.
“I’m pleased and excited to be part of this terrific team as we tackle the issues facing the Association and risk managers in general,” said Mr. Ho. “As the global mar-kets continue to evolve and face the challenges of increasing complexity, technological change and increasing competition, the IACPM is well positioned to maintain its lead-ing role in educating, informing and advocating on behalf of its members.”
Among the key issues facing the IACPM this year is the rapid growth of LCDS, or credit default swaps linked to loans, and the Association’s strong preference for the continuation of standard contract language in Europe that includes an option to cancel derivatives contracts if the underlying loans are called. Such an option is not standard in the US, although many risk managers would prefer such an option in that market as well.
The IACPM will also focus on preventing the misuse of material non-public in-formation, or insider information. The Association recently joined a number of other Associations, including SIFMA, LSTA and ISDA, in reaffirming their condemnation of such abuse. The IACPM points out, however, in their roles as overall credit portfolio managers, Association members have long been at the forefront of developing effective internal control measures to prevent abuse within their firms.
The Association is also planning of a number of activities directed at Asian capital markets as an increasing number of firms in those markets have started develop-ing portfolio management functions. The Association also expects to devote consider-able attention to the implementation of Fair Value Options globally.
“I’m delighted to be working with such a seasoned group of officers and direc-tors as we tackle the significant issues facing our membership,” said Som-lok Leung, Executive Director of the IACPM. “The Association has grown significantly over the past five years, partly as a result of the growth of the function within firms, but also as a result of the effectiveness of our advocacy and educational efforts.”
The Association has grown from nine founding members in 2001 to 74 at the beginning of this year. Reflecting this enormous growth, the Association has decided to increase the size of its board from 12 to 15 directors. Serving on the board this year, in addition to the officers, are Victor Bulzacchelli, Bear Stearns, Stephen Dellosso, Bank of America, Masahiro Hosomi, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mark Hughes, RBS, Tamar Joulia, ING, Sean Kavanagh, Deutsche Bank, Pierre Lepinoy, BNP Paribas, Neville Mallard, ANZ, Evan Picoult, Citigroup, Russell Playford, Wachovia, and Alexander Santos, ABN AMRO.
The IACPM, with 74 member institutions located in thirteen countries, is a pro-fessional association dedicated to the advancement of credit portfolio management.