Right now collateral management has become an essential part of a financial institution's framework for risk and regulatory compliance. It is already a business practice in its own right and is recognized as one of the most important risk mitigating techniques in the credit risk area, and part of the latest Basel II guidelines. More ...

The Jacob Fleming Conference Collateral Management on 18-19 October in Amsterdam provided a great opportunity to discuss the hottest issues related to the topic. Danny Peeters from KBC was one of the top speakers at the conference who answered our questions focusing on reconciliation together with his colleague Philip Brackx. More ...

As investors seek to maximise investment performance in an increasingly complex global marketplace, they are equally concerned with managing credit exposure. In aiming to ensure the stability of the financial system, Basel II addresses risk in the financial markets by promoting capital adequacy as a safeguard against risk and seeks to align more closely the measurement of risk with the regulatory capital requirement. Basel II also recognises both the significance of operational risk and the value of credit risk mitigants, such as collateral.

Ted Allen, Principal Consultant with CubeMatch, discusses the main trends in the collateral market today, highlighting some of the innovative techniques now being used to add value to the collateral process and focuses on the opportunities available to extend the benefits of a collateral programme.

As liquidity dries up and the market becomes more risk sensitive, OTC derivative traders are looking to their collateral management teams to provide quick solutions. Caspar Hoare examines the challenges faced by traditional buy-side collateral managers in meeting the demands of the front office, and finds that sell side can lend a helping hand.