It was a big week for Global Peer Financing Association (GPFA) members in Canada! GPFA closed out the week by partnering with the Canadian Securities Lending Association to jointly present a Buy & Sell Side Open Forum. GPFA members Marco Drumond, CFA from HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) and Francois Bellavance-Lecompte from PSP Investments joined sell side speakers Dexter Gall from RBC Investor & Treasury Services and John Loynd from BMO Capital Markets to discuss current market themes. A special thanks to CASLA President and Vice President Mary Jane Schuessler and Roanna Kim, CSP for inviting GPFA to partner with CASLA for this great event.

We have said it before . . . when major asset owners stand together to share best practices and learn from one another about market trends, the entire securities finance industry moves forward. Thank you to our Global Peer Financing Association (GPFA) members from Canada and other global regions that joined for our closed-door beneficial owner meeting in Toronto yesterday. We look forward to continuing the conversations today at the Canadian Securities Lending Association conference and meeting again at our next in person session at the International Securities Lending Association (ISLA) in Lisbon in June. Onwards!

Many of our Global Peer Financing Association (GPFA) members joined Steve Everett and the TMX Group yesterday to close the Toronto market as they celebrated the launch of their new Canadian Collateral Management Service in partnership with Clearstream. Thank you for including our buyside GPFA members in this important market launch. We look forward to watching Canada's first domestic triparty repo capability grow. Thank you!

The Global Peer Financing Association (GPFA) is excited to partner with the Canadian Securities Lending Association to present a Buy & Sell Side Open Forum as a lunch session during the upcoming CASLA Annual Conference on Thursday, May 25th in Toronto. Seats are limited and available on a first come first serve basis, so register now!

Paul Larkin, CFA from CIBC Capital Markets will moderate a discussion with Francois Bellavance-Lecompte from PSP Investments, Marco Drumond, CFA from HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan), Dexter Gall from RBC Investor & Treasury Services, and John Loynd from BMO Capital Markets.

This is a unique opportunity to join member representatives of both CASLA and GPFA to jointly discuss overlapping securities finance topics during the conference lunch break. Networking and lunch will be available.

You need to be a registered attendee at the CASLA conference to attend. To register for a limited space at this lunchtime session: https://lnkd.in/dktWK9mdMore information on CASLA conference here: https://lnkd.in/d4gznNp

Thank you to CASLA President and Vice President, Mary Jane Schuessler and Roanna Kim, CSP for welcoming GPFA to your event!

Calling all Canadian Beneficial Owners! In advance of Canadian Securities Lending Association's Conference in May, GPFA is hosting an in-person meeting in Toronto the afternoon prior on Wednesday, 24 May from 3pm - 5pm. The meeting will be held at one of our pension member offices in downtown Toronto. All GPFA members and beneficial owner friends are welcome for this beneficial owner only session. If you are interested to attend or would like to raise discussion topics in advance, please reach out to GPFA Chair Robert Goobie CPA CMA. See you in May in Toronto!

Last month GPFA was fortunate to have Laura Klimpel from The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) present to our membership on the potential impact to the repo market of the SEC's proposal to require broader central clearing of U.S. Treasury activity. DTCC is hosting a discussion with key industry leaders next Tuesday, 25 April. Advanced registration is required for this webinar and the deadline is this Friday, 21 April. Register here: https://lnkd.in/gmZgFgGnThank you Laura Klimpel for educating our community!

Congratulations to GPFA Board Member Dr. Jerry May on completing his Doctor of Business Administration in Finance at Liberty University where the focus of his research and studies was "Short-Term Financing Trades Amongst Institutional Investor Peers" - a topic of interest within the GPFA community. Congratulations Jerry - well done!!

GPFA is pleased to announce it will be leading the closed-door beneficial owner session at the upcoming Finadium Investors in Securities Lending conference in New York on May 18th. Chris Benish from State of Wisconsin Investment Board will moderate the meeting. Discussion topics have been announced and more information on the event can be found here: https://lnkd.in/e3DyYHrF

When major asset owners actively engage in securities financing discussions the entire market ecosystem benefits. Thank you to all our GPFA members and global beneficial friends that joined for our informal GPFA meeting during the 2023 PASLA/The Risk Management Association Conference on Asian Securities Lending. See you at the next industry conference!

GPFA members: Are you headed to PASLA / RMA Conference on Asian Securities Lending? GPFA members attending the conference will be meeting on Tuesday, 7 March for an informal peer meeting. Reach out to GPFA for meeting details and for more details on the PASLA RMA conference on 7-9 March, click here: https://lnkd.in/gmweJEgJ

New GPFA Member podcast alert!We are excited to share a new Peer Connections episode,

The Northwestern Mutual Model, which features some of the newest GPFA members. In this episode, Chris Benish speaks with, Brian Yeazel, CFA and Kris Breitzman of Northwestern Mutual, about their approach to securities lending, repo, and cash collateral reinvestment and finds out what drove them to join GPFA.https://lnkd.in/etY4P4e

When one conversation just doesn't seem like enough, you podcast again! If you haven't already listened to our GPFA peer connections podcast from December with Matthew Brunette and Mark Faulkner, go back and listen to that first. If you are in the know already, then tune in today to hear Chris Benish from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board continue the conversation with Matthew Brunette from Norges Bank Investment Management and Jerry May from OPERS comparing their views on how the cost of indemnification may impact the global beneficial owner community as well as the broader market. Listen here and tell us what your views are: https://lnkd.in/etY4P4e

Calling all beneficial owners! GPFA is excited to host the upcoming closed door beneficial owner meeting at Information Management Network (IMN)'s 28th Annual Beneficial Owners' International Securities Finance & Collateral Management Conference in New Orleans on January 24 & 25th. Cherie Jeffries from State Board of Administration of Florida and Sally Kan MBA, CFA from OMERS will be co-leading the 75 minute meeting. If you have topics you would like added to the discussion, please reach out Cherie or Sally. For more information on IMN's event: https://lnkd.in/dSj55CYh

We are excited to share a new GPFA Peer Connections podcast, "Something has started changing: the cost of securities lending indemnification can no longer be ignored." In this episode, GPFA speaks with Matthew Brunette from Norges Bank Investment Management and Mark Faulkner from Credit Benchmark, about how regulatory capital constraints are impacting the market and how agent banks are starting to respond with real change. Listen now:https://lnkd.in/etY4P4e

GPFA is pleased to announce Rest Super has joined our global beneficial owner association of over 30 other active buyside organizations involved in the securities financing markets. Rest Super is also the third Australian Superannuation to join GPFA. Rest is one of Australia’s largest profit-to-member superannuation funds, using their size and expertise to deliver strong long-term investment performance to 1.9 million hardworking Australians. We look forward to involving Rest Super in the global GPFA community, as well as in our growing Australia / Asia-Pacific member group, where networking, education, and discussion of best practices amongst our members benefits the whole beneficial owner ecosystem.

GPFA's Q4 Member Meeting is Wednesday, 16 November at 8am ET. The agenda is now available and GPFA Members will have received the information directly. If you are a global beneficial owner engaged in the securities financing markets and are interested in learning more about our buyside association, please reach out to GPFA! https://lnkd.in/gb92uTp

GPFA Peer Connections podcast alert! Tune in to listen to GPFA's Chair, Robert Goobie CPA CMA, as he chat with Thomas Aubrey, a corporate business advisor, macro-credit specialist and founder of Credit Capital Advisory, to understand the impacts banking regulations will have on the buy-side participants in the securities financing markets. Listen now: https://lnkd.in/etY4P4e

You can also learn more about this topic by accessing the paper Thomas Aubrey wrote for Credit Benchmark, as their Risk Advisor, titled, 'EU Capital Rules to Increase Buyside Trading Costs'. Click here for the paper: https://lnkd.in/eEfqZ45g

GPFA Peer Connections is out with a new podcast featuring research discussions on Total Fund Asset Allocation to Maximize Sharpe Ratio. Thank you Jacky Lee and Marco Salerno from HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) and Elkamhi Redouane from University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management and Stefano Cavaglia from State of Wisconsin Investment Board for presenting your separate research papers on how to construct a better beta portfolio to our GPFA community. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/etY4P4e

Research papers referenced can be found here:

https://lnkd.in/e8sGY6zA

https://lnkd.in/e9uutsd5

GPFA is excited to introduce Season 2 of our Peer Connections podcast series where we’ll be chatting with GPFA members and friends about a broad range of securities finance topics and related investment areas important to our global asset owner community. We’re kicking off this season with a new episode, “Bridging the Gap between Strategic Allocation and Investment Risk” with Chris Benish from State of Wisconsin Investment Board speaking with Jacky Lee from HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) and Elkamhi Redouane from the University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management about their research work and published paper titled “Bridging the Gap between Strategic Allocation and Investment Risk". We are excited for this new chapter in the Peer Connections podcast and would love to hear any ideas and feedback for future episodes! Listen here: https://lnkd.in/etY4P4e

GPFA is pleased to announce Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) has joined as the 29th member of our global beneficial owner association and the 11th Canadian based asset owner. IMCO manages $79 billion of assets on behalf of its clients. We look forward to involving IMCO in the GPFA community where networking, education, and discussion of best practices amongst our members benefits the whole beneficial owner ecosystem.