18th GSF Summit: sourcing collateral remains top industry priority

Clearstream’s GSF Summit in Luxembourg is the largest gathering of active repo and collateral traders, securities lenders and borrowers, treasury managers as well as money market professionals in the world.

The 18th edition on 22 and 23 January 2014 was again a great success – around 850 delegates from six continents enjoyed lively debates on a wide range of topics from repo financing to collateral optimisation. Interactive voting on questions relative to the discussion topic helped the panels understand the needs of the audience and provided valuable insights into the current mood of the industry.

Although 95 percent of delegates stated that that sourcing collateral has risen up their agenda in the past 12 months, 61 percent still have “much work to undertake” to establish a clear collateral strategy. In addition to collateral management, the impact of upcoming rules and regulation was a recurrent theme throughout the event.

In contrast to the industry-related panels, this year’s keynote speakers focused on more general topics. Neil Jacobsohn from FutureWorld SA shared his highly entertaining vision of the world in 2020 and Amundi’s Philippe Ithurbide provided an insightful overview of the current state of the global economy. Both keynote speakers were quite positive and the general sentiment at the Summit was more upbeat than it had been for a number of years, indicating that the industry might be ready to move on after the crisis.

As every year, the GSF Summit was also used as a venue for other industry gatherings such as the European Repo Council and the Liquidity Alliance – both organisations benefited from the fact that their members were already in one place. An extensive social programme on Tuesday (Eurex Repo Bar) and Wednesday evening as well as Thursday afternoon provided plenty of networking opportunities.

On the occasion of the GSF Summit, Clearstream launched its new Twitter account @Clearstream with the hashtag #GSFsummit14. Please consult the summary of the social media activities surrounding the summit on storify.

All presentations will also soon be available.