CEO Letter - May 2018
Dear Colleagues
Welcome to the May issue of Focus, which has a real CCP flavour this month.
We continue to look back at the key themes to emerge from our recent IOMA: WFE’s Clearing & Derivatives Conference, with a number of interviews and contributions from participants at the event.
We kick off with a Q&A interview with Craig Phillips, Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury who joined me and Craig Donohue, OCC's Executive Chairman & CEO, and hosts of this year’s IOMA, in a Fireside Chat. In this issue, he addresses some of the critical questions around Treasury’s key reform initiatives in the derivative market; talks about his support for CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo’s vision paper for Swaps 2.0; and outlines Treasury’s key objectives as Brexit approaches.
Another participant from IOMA joins us this month, as Paul Wong, Member of Secretariat, Committee on Payments & Market Infrastructures, BIS - who took part in a panel on the interconnectedness of CCPs and banks - writes here about the importance of CCP transparency.
And we also feature articles from two newly elected officers of the WFE CCP Working Group. Firstly, Sean Downey, Executive Director, Global Clearing & Risk Policy, CME Group, and now Chair of the WFE's CCP Working Group looks at how regulatory reform can lead to unintended consequences for CCPs.
Secondly, Alicia Greenwood, Director, Post Trade Services, Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), and now Vice-Chair of the WFE's CCP Working Group, gives her regional perspective on the importance of CCPs.
The WFE's CCP Working Group met in April 2018 on the sidelines of IOMA, when three new officers were elected including Ryan Ingram, Group Regulatory Analytics, Risk Policy & FMI Strategy, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd as Vice-Chair.
In the Executive Interview section, we are delighted to welcome Oscar N. Onyema, CEO, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) following the recent Building African Financial Markets (BAFM) seminar, held under the umbrella of the African Securities Exchanges Association (ASEA), of which Oscar is the President. Oscar outlines the strategic priorities for NSE for 2018, and the key projects the exchange is working on at the moment, along with showcasing some of the important CSR and ESG initiatives underway at the exchange.
Sticking to the theme of ESG, the WFE’s Research Team published its fourth annual Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) survey of member exchanges, which showed exchanges are maturing in ESG leadership, with nearly 90% embracing sustainability initiatives.
We also feature an article by Kesara Manchusree, President of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) who writes about the launch of 'LiVE', its new blockchain-based platform that aims to boost startups in Thailand. We would like to thank Khun Kesara for her outstanding contribution to SET and WFE, and wish her well for the future. Her successor Pakorn Peetathawatchai starts as the exchange’s 13th president on Friday 1 June for a four-year term.
The WFE’s Regulatory Team has responded to IOSCO's Consultation Report on 'Mechanisms used by trading venues to manage extreme volatility and preserve orderly trading' or VCMs, and we include the response here.
The WFE’s Research Team analyses interest rate derivatives volumes in April 2018, looking at a decline in volumes traded across all three regions.
The WFE Working Committee (WoCo) Meeting is taking place today, 31 May, in London, and we are also looking forward to a debate and reception this evening with industry stakeholders and WoCo representatives discussing further themes from our market integrity report. We will be featuring a number of WoCo contributors in next month’s Focus.
Finally, the WFE, hosted by Athens Stock Exchange, is pleased to announce that member registration is now open for the WFE's 58th General Assembly & Annual Meeting, 2-4 October 2018.
As WFE members gather this year in Athens, the home of the original marketplace, we go back to basics. We focus on the role of markets in renewal: the continued relevance of markets-based financing; the centrality of markets in ensuring accountability and transparency; and the overarching contribution of markets to sustainable development. Exchanges and CCPs are fundamental to the economies and societies they serve.
For further details, please visit the event website. Members can also register here.
Thank you.