The International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers is set to announce its 2007 board of directors Tuesday. Keith Ho, managing director and global head of portfolio management at Barclays Capital, will serve as chair and Allan Yarish from Société Générale will serve as vice chair. Don Noe of JPMorgan is the new treasurer and David Crippa of Swiss Re is the new secretary.
One of the big issues on the association's plate is how loan-only credit default swaps are settled. The IACPM is strongly in favor of a European document that includes the option to cancel the contract if the loan goes away (CIN, 11/13).
"We would like to get a little more involved in the process," Ho said. "It's not something we are saying has to be cancelable. We would like the options for parties to agree on either cancelable or non-cancelable. All we want effectively is a check box, make it cancelable or non-cancelable."
It will also focus on preventing the misuse of material non-public information. This issue has been a hot topic among some of the other trade associations including the Loan Syndications and Trading Association (10/16) and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
A third area it is focusing its attention on is the Asian market. "We are getting a lot more interest from banks in Asia and they are looking to learn and develop portfolio management teams themselves. We are quite focused on going there and having an educational seminar." The IACPM offered a seminar last year and one is set for March 9 in Hong Kong.
The organization will also look at offering a data survey for the middle market, Ho said. He explained there is an increasing amount of information on default probabilities and recovery rates and the association wants to offer that data to members. The association is still kicking around the idea and no time frame has been set for an anticipated release date. It has released member data surveys for other areas, including credit limits and economic capital modeling approaches.
Ho served as last year's vice chairperson. The association has grown from nine members in 2001 to 74 in thirteen countries, at the beginning of this year. It is currently in discussions with another potential group, which would bring the number to 75.