AXA joins GPFA 18 March 2021US Reporter: Alex Pugh
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Another European asset owner has joined the nascent Global Peer Financing Association (GPFA), bringing the total number of members to 14.
AXA Investment Managers joins the eight-month-old association, whose members now represent a combined $6.5 trillion of assets under management (AUM), and will work with other members to optimise the group’s securities financing activities.
The four founding members, all pension funds, are Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan , the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System, who combined have nearly $1 trillion AUM.
AXA is the second European based asset owner to join the GPFA, after Norges Bank and brings a lendable asset base of more than €250 billion to the pool.
AXA’s head of liquidity Ernst Dolce, who is responsible for ensuring the fund’s liquidity management team secures adequate funding using securities lending, repo, reverse repo, and collateral transformation, says that joining GPFA’s “community of like-minded peers” will streamline the optimisation of excess liquidity and create an opportunity to partner on technology to better serve his clients.
“GPFA is an additional bridge between peers that aligns with our mission,” Dolce says.
“In the current environment, where there are ongoing changes in regulation relative to the use of derivatives and downward pressures on fee borrow coming from repeated government stimulus and quantitative easing, we see the GPFA as a place where peers will have the opportunity to pool knowledge to better meet our individual goals,” Dolce adds.
GPFA recently created member-led sub-groups in order for members to discuss specific topics important to their businesses, including adoption of technologies, LIBOR and the Uncleared Margin Rules regulatory implementation.
GPFA chair Rob Goobie says that, “by sharing best practices and experiences, members can create opportunities that expand a multitude of areas: operational, legal, credit, technology, and across multiple asset classes and investment disciplines”.
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