GFF Podcast

GFF Summit 2025 Preview

• Clearstream • Season 4 • Episode 7

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Happy New Year! We are back with a special preview of the 2025 Global Funding and Financing (GFF) Summit – on “Navigating uncertainty: Geopolitics and market dynamics”. The summit will take place in Luxembourg on 29-30 January.

In this episode, we discuss about the big themes and keynote speakers that will make up the event’s agenda, focusing on collateral optimisation, regulatory changes and the importance of collaboration in adapting to evolving market conditions.

Join Marton Szigeti (Clearstream), Elodie Putz (Clearstream), Johnathan Lombardo (Eurex) and Frank Gast (Eurex Repo) for a preview of the main GFF Summit, plus regular co-hosts Christian Rossler and Andrew Keith Walker to talk about the Central Bank and Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome back to the GFF podcast. It's January, it's 2025. It's our first show of the year and that means two things. Number one, Happy New Year from everyone here in the Clearstream virtual studio. And number two, we are just a couple of weeks away from the biggest event of the securities lending, repo and collateral management year. Yes, the GFF Summit is coming up at the end of January at the LuxExpo in Luxembourg, and it is, of course, an event that is famed for its fantastic gala dinner and reception evening. It's famed for its invite-only working groups and, of course, the Central Bank and Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum Day, which sees many of the central banks and sovereign wealth funds and finance ministers and policymakers from around the world converging for a very special day. We'll be talking about that a little bit later on. And, of course, there's the main event itself, the GFF Summit, which is known for attracting big names, all C-suite and top level execs from European institutions, from global institutions, from major multinational market participants. It really is three days of intensive, hands-on insight, advice, and it's how the securities lending industry plans its year for most of Europe and almost certainly other parts of the world as well.

Speaker 1:

Joining us for this monumental event preview show is, of course, the head of collateral liquidity and lending solutions and also a member of the Clearstream Securities Services Management Committee, Martin Seghetti. You'll know Martin, of course. He's been on the show many times before. He's the man who opens and closes the event. He's very much the host for our many invited dignitaries and guests. We'll be coming to Marty in a minute and with Marty, of course, we have Elodie Putz, who is the Vice President of Business Management and Collateral Liquidity and Lending Solutions. Elodie, who is responsible for making sure everything runs smoothly on the day. She actually has to eat her lunch through a walkie-talkie. Yes, it's never out of her hand and she never gets to sit down for three days, but it's worth it because the results are fantastic.

Speaker 1:

Also joining us we have Jonathan Lombardo, the Global Head of Business Development for FIC Derivatives and Repo at Eurex. Jonathan, of course, you'll know from being on many shows before and we'll be coming to him to talk about the repo side of things. And of course, Frank Gast, who is the Global Head of Sales for Eurex Repo and the Managing Director there, and of course you'll know Frank as well. He's a regular guest on the show. So that's our lineup, but, of course, no show would be complete without introducing the BFF of GFF, the brains of the outfit, my co-host, Mr Christian Rossler. Happy to be back, Andrew. It's good to have you back, Christian. Did you have a good Christmas break? Did you have a nice time? I understand you went to Italy this year.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, it was all smooth, it was nice.

Speaker 1:

yes, Did you do any deals with the Bank of Italia while you were there, or was it just holiday time?

Speaker 2:

Just holiday.

Speaker 1:

Okay, fine. Well, you know, there's always next year. I suppose it's a little bit early for us to be thinking about what you're going to be doing next Christmas, christian, and sneaking in a little bit of business while you're on holiday, because we have the rest of 2025 to get through first, and there is a lot to get through. The theme of this year's conference is navigating uncertainty, geopolitical change and, of course, dealing with unpredictable market dynamics, so there's a lot to get through. So we'll dive straight in with Marty Martin Seghetti, head of Coll, liquidity and lending solutions, and, of course, the man who hosts the main GFF summit. You opened the last show and you gave the closing remarks as well, so it feels appropriate to come to you first and say how was 2024? And what are we looking at with this year's 2025 conference?

Speaker 3:

Yes, thank you. I mean, look, somebody has to stand up on stage and start and end things. But I think that belies the amount of work that an enormous team do throughout the course of almost a full year to prepare for the next GFF Summit. So we can't take anything away from the enormous amount of people in Clearstream and in Eurex that work to get this prepared. I'm super excited about the agenda that we have this year, but more touch on the year we've just had, right.

Speaker 3:

So we ended the last GFF Summit and I think the sentiment we left with was definitely unprecedented times a real eye on geopolitics right, and there was a sense that geopolitics were going to be driving the market during the course of this year. There was a lot of elections, there was political unrest, war in some parts of the world, etc. Right, and I think that has certainly borne out. I think geopolitics was the major theme of the year driving the markets. We've had a look at elections going in peculiar directions, right. France is an example. Right, let's see what happens with Germany this year. The US election probably don't need to say much about that because everybody knows, but that has then also had a really very large impact on the market.

Speaker 3:

Monetary policy um, the way that european monetary policy is shifting, especially the securities financing and repo space, uh, with the controls around liquidity and what have you? Um, and although markets at the moment seem buoyant, you can see, even the Fed speech of not long ago showed the underlying fear that exists and the underlying uncertainty that exists in the investor community, in that statements or vague directions from policymakers really do have dramatic shifts on the market right now. And that's the sentiment that we go into this year with right. How will the markets react is really a function of the geopolitics, the monetary policy. We are going through a period of change on a global scale and it's a fantastic opportunity in the summit for the thought leaders in this industry to get together and to collectively discuss and talk about that right.

Speaker 1:

And we're very, very happy to be the facilitator, the platform of those discussions and on that front, jonathan, I want to come to you, jonathan Lombardo, whenever I talk to you, you're in Luxembourg. Now I know you live in London, but of course, you are our American on the panel. It's been a big year, a big year of change back home, but, as everyone else is also going through a lot of change, it feels like America is a little bit ahead of the game with getting a new administration, in getting a bit of stability into their sort of economic policy, making some big changes, potentially on a deregulatory front. But it could be America leading the way with tech innovation and with financial reform. Tell us a bit more about what your last year was like and what you're expecting to come in 2025.

Speaker 4:

Well, I think it kind of evolves around the title of the summit itself, right Navigating uncertainty.

Speaker 4:

I think the last two years at the GFF summit, there was a big focus on liquidity or the squeeze on liquidity, right.

Speaker 4:

And I think that now, with you know the events that Marty referenced before, you know wars and well, I should say, conflicts, changes of policy, changes of administration across the globe, that creates a real sense of volatility in the market, right, and I think there's a lot of ups and downs and swings.

Speaker 4:

I think there are things that are transitioning on a day-to-day basis. I mean, just look at the recent events in Canada, just to show that the overreaching presence of political change is now bleeding into other countries and influencing other countries and with that, and that creates this volatility nature of investors and how do they look at their investments and how sure are they that what they're, you know, the infrastructure and the market supervision that they have today, is going to be in place in one month's time, two months time, one year's time, in one month's time, two months' time, one year's time. So I think it's really this conference allows us to really focus in on those potential shifts that will happen, you know, literally out of the blue, from a way that we've been operating for in the past several years, to something completely new.

Speaker 1:

And Marty, what about from your side? Because throughout this season of the show throughout 2024, we have talked about value-added services coming from more advanced use of data and artificial intelligence. We've obviously talked about OSCAR. We've talked about the marriage-broking service and how these many sort of clever, innovative tools have been built on top of Clearstream's platform. So what's going to be the really big theme for 2025? Are we talking all about collateral optimization through tech, or are we going to be looking at keeping up with changes like T1?

Speaker 3:

Collateral optimization is something that everyone is looking at right now. When I say everyone, I mean I'm talking about our typical client universe. We're heavily involved in expanding our investments in the collateral optimization space. So you mentioned Oscar. Oscar is kind of like our ground zero, right? It's the first time that we integrated a digital AI-driven tool with a legacy collateral management infrastructure digital AI-driven tool with a legacy collateral management infrastructure and that gave us the ability to view collateral schedules, eligibility, et cetera, in a digital form.

Speaker 3:

And the investment focus for us this year is working with our clients to expand that out right, and to say now, what can you do in this regard? And really our focus here is to allow our clients to optimize in a more streamlined way across custodians and across venues right use, and I think that's what the market wants. That's what the market needs. There's a lot of friction in the collateral optimization space friction based on different custody locations, based on settlement processes, based on market cutoff timelines, et cetera, et cetera and we need to work together with our clients as an infrastructure provider to help to overcome those points of friction. And really that's what we're doing this year. It's focused on further integrating AI into our legacy processes and it's focused on using the digital and AI tools that we have to provide multi-custodian capability. We don't need to be the custodian of your assets to manage them from a collateral perspective, and we've proven that right. We do it in Canada today. None of those assets are in custody with Clearstream and yet we are the collateral management engine that provides that provides the collateral optimization to all of those clients, that entire market, right. So rolling that capability out with the use of digital and AI is going to be very important to us, right. That's going to give an efficiency enhancement, a timeframe enhancement, what have you to the market, hopefully this year? Right, and it will prepare the market for other things that are coming down the pipe, right. So it's very true, buy-side, super important, big growth opportunity for an infrastructure provider like us and Eurex.

Speaker 3:

But there's other known knowns which are coming down the pipe that are going to be very disruptive unless we get ahead of those known knowns, right. For example, market structure change driven by changes in regulation or changes in policy like T plus one. Right, t plus one is going to have a huge impact in Europe. It went live in the Americas questionable as to whether there were any actual savings as a result of it in the Americas. But the Americas is a single market. Everything is an internal settlement in the Americas, right, europe is not. Europe has got multiple CSDs, differentized CSDs.

Speaker 3:

The settlement infrastructure is very complicated and what have you um? And I think, when you look at the, the, the conversations that are going on around t plus one, it's not so much focused on enhancing the efficiency of the settlement landscape, because settlement happens today on a, on a point in time, right, and for the majority of securities that would in any how be in scope for t plus one, a lot of those are settled intraday anyway, now, not as much as the us granted right, but still some of them, which means the infrastructure exists, the capability exists. The concerns are around the funding and financing space. Right, it's. How do you recall your securities in order to settle on t plus one? That means the funding and financing space needs to migrate to T zero. And how do we do that? How do we, as an infrastructure, work with our clients to make sure that we have aligned deadlines, efficient processes, we have the cash side of the equation aligned to the security side of the equation, right, and there's a deadline now, 2027, whereby Europe is going to migrate to T plus. One's see how that goes.

Speaker 3:

Europe not pointing figures doesn't necessarily have the best track record of executing things on time. Ecms, great example. Right, delayed again, I think for the fifth time, but let's see, we have to work toward those deadlines, as those are the deadlines that have been given and I think that's another. That's another focus, right. Collateral optimization, sure, in isolation. Cost benefits associated with that. Right, being attracted to a broader client set. Democratizing repo and securities financing, including the buy side, yes, certainly. And also responding to market structure change that we know is coming down the pipe which, unless we do respond in a joined up manner with the overall market, could be quite disruptive.

Speaker 4:

And I just wanted to add I think it's important to note that on day two we have a panel that has both Isla and ICMA's CEOs addressing that T1 thought right. So what we've tried to do this year is to ensure that we cover the day-to-day pitfalls that the people that are attending the conference are really experiencing. So not always looking at everything from a very high level 35,000 foot but really breaking it down to what's keeping people up at night. T1, obviously from a trade association perspective, is the thing that's keeping people up at night from a European perspective, and how we're going to actually adapt that process. So that's something that I think everyone would want to attend and is very eager to understand is what positioning are the trade associations taking and how are they looking to administer best practices and get this implemented as smoothly as possible?

Speaker 3:

I think the trade associations play a huge role in this because they help to define standards, and without standards almost like a common domain model it gets harder and harder to get to T plus one and T plus zero in a market that is structured in the way Europe is structured. So there is a real need for engagement with the trade associations in order to get this done. This is not something that you know any one person can do on their own. This is a very much needs to be a collaborative effort.

Speaker 1:

And, of course, that's where the GFF is such a great event, because everyone's already there that you're going to need to connect with and collaborate with over 2025. If you work in the world of securities lending, collateral management and, of course, repo and on the subject of repo, let's bring in Frank Gast Frank, last time I saw you you as the global head of sales for Eurex repo heading off to America to do big road shows out there. Obviously, the American business is developing and you were there right in the heart of election time. How was 2024 for you sitting there at the repo desk? And what's 2025 looking like?

Speaker 5:

Hi, andrew, it's great having me again, and New York was fantastic. We had the first time, our repo roundtable, as you correctly said. A lot of people joined us. In the context of the US Treasury mandate for mandatory clearing was very much a topic of discussion. They were interested in what's happening in Europe and we are attracting new clients out of the US as well.

Speaker 5:

So it was perfect timing for us and, as you know, we did this as a series of roundtables followed by a number of articles as well, and it gives us good attention to regional clients and local kind of support, where we discuss the topics in a group of 20, 30 people very intense, very interactive and therefore the first time that we did New York. Frank Odendal joined me as well and we had a lot of topics about buy-side participation at GlideRepo. So fantastic Timing was perfect and now we're heading into procurations also for the summit, which is under the theme of navigating uncertainty, geopolitics and market dynamics. As you know and this ties into what you mentioned what happened in the US after the elections, what's happening in 2025, what's happening in Europe Eastern Europe, right and I think this all uncertainty adds into volatility in the markets and how people are using products at Eurex in the particular repo.

Speaker 1:

Okay now it's an interesting event because the evening before the main GFF kicks off, we have the Eurex repo bar, which is always a very popular gathering and networking opportunity, and of course, in the afternoon beforex repo bar, which is always a very popular gathering and networking opportunity, and of course, in the afternoon before the repo bar, we've got the Central Bank and Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum, where we've got Eric Timmuller, the CEO of Eurex Clearing, as one of our keynote speakers, and while that's going on, I'll be there with Christian. We'll come to that in a sec. You're going to be at the European repo user group, which is another invite only session, which tends to be very important. Tell us a bit more about that and then what you've got lined up for the main GFF. Yes, exactly.

Speaker 5:

We have our user group. We call it the GFF committee runs on the Tuesday afternoon in parallel to the central bank forum, where Eric will speak very prominently and a lot of other great speakers christian rostler has lined up uh, he has done a great job again to make this very interesting again for the summit which then starts on the 29th of january. This year we are very proud to have new faces because I think like it's good to rotate, to have a diverse set of clients. Right, we look at a broad representation of industry people and we are very glad also that we we got our own new ceos stephanie eckermann from clearstream she will be on stage, as well as robert boy, our new urex frankfurt ceo, who came on board this year. But also interesting research people like James Pomeroy from HSBC will give us insights on 2025.

Speaker 5:

And we got Christian Koch, for example, from Union Investment, who is the head of fixed income and ethics. He will moderate the repo panel, for example, where we have State Street HSBC, standard Chartered Tenoron as a buy side representative. So I think, a lot of interesting topics. We have a liquidity panel, collateral panel and, of course, one on new technology. Dlt, drt, broad range will be an exciting program and we are glad that we have been able to attract so many high professional experts and speakers for the summit.

Speaker 1:

And finally, Christian, obviously you're the co-host of the show. You keep it on the straight and narrow and stop me from wandering off on wild tangents about cryptocurrency, blockchain and central bank-issued digital currencies all the time. And also you organize the Sovereign Wealth Fund and Central Bank Forum, a day which takes place before the main GFF starts event again for people who work in central banking and monetary policy and in debt management offices and all those important sort of public mechanisms of finance across the EU and, in fact, globally. And I'm co -hosting it with you again this year and I've got some fantastic guests on the agenda, so why didn't you tell me all about it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, andrew, it's actually the antechamber to the gff summit. It's the central bank and sovereign wealth fund forum, which starts on the afternoon before we kick off the gff summit with the you know repo bar and then the next day. So you are my co-host on the podcast, but you're also my co-host on the GFF Central Bank and Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum. So the overarching theme of the GFF Summit 2025, as it was mentioned by Marty navigating uncertainty, geopolitics and market dynamics not only because it has a catchy ring to it, but also because it is of utmost importance that we discuss geopolitics. We start at the Central Bank and Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum with a fireside chat with Yuri Butsa, who is the Deputy Minister of Finance of the Ukraine. So this is a fireside chat which you're going to lead. You're going to straight dive into the capital markets of Ukraine, followed by policymakers and major representatives of institutions that shape the world of the central banks, the ministries of finance, but also the supranational institutions.

Speaker 2:

Now, the major topic in the first half of the Central Bank Forum is the Capital Markets Union, which is now known as the Savings and Investment Union, the plan which was launched in 2014 by Jokro Junk Juncker.

Speaker 2:

As the Juncker plan has been coming back because of the geopolitical necessity to have a capital market union in Europe is stronger than ever. So we're going to run a panel discussion on the CMU, which you're going to moderate, by the way to moderate, by the way, together with me. We then have a second half of the afternoon, where we invite our ceo of eurex clearing, tim muller, to discuss in a fireside chat with you the safety and the integrity of the market, followed by a panel on debt management and repo. Now I think that one of the themes that policymakers have to pay attention to in 2025 is debt stabilization. Following the pandemic and also following the geopolitical tensions, there has been a lot of spending going on, and so there's a lot of debt, but the policymakers need to stabilize the debt globally in order to prevent another financial crisis. So all of this makes a reactive mix of factors that shape 2025 and reflect upon the content of our Central Bank and Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum.

Speaker 1:

And last question on this part of the forum to marty um, as you opened, uh the last event and closed it, I'm coming to you last to say, um, what's, uh, you think going to be the number one hands-on, uh in-depth session that market participants, attendees, mustn't miss. Not wishing to put you on the spot, I think that's fine.

Speaker 3:

I'm a bit of a nerd at heart, right. So for me, the real interesting stuff in the GFF summit is certainly the panels, but also the keynote speeches. Right, the keynote speech at the beginning sets us up and gives us an overview of the macro outlook, and those speeches the last few years have been absolutely excellent for setting the tone for the overall conference. Right, we have two this year in macro from Union Invest and from HSBC. Right so Christian Kolb from Union Invest and from HSBC. Right so, christian Koch from Union Invest and also James Pomeroy from HSBC delivering keynotes on the macro. So I would certainly advise coming to the keynotes for the macro. We also have, around the collateral and liquidity, a landscape of the ECB's new operational framework where we have Marcelo from the EIB and Andreas Bonnet, sort of moderating, from McKinsey.

Speaker 3:

I think those discussions around liquidity are going to be very, very important, right, all of the comments we've seen and what we hear is that the liquidity implications on what's going on next year are going to be great for our industry. So I would certainly be very interested to see those keynotes and fireside chats. The panels are going to be awesome, as always. Right, we have industry leaders. We always have a good level of disagreement. We always have a good level of debate. Audience engagement is also awesome. We get some tough questions from the audience that put panelists on the spot, and that's what we pay to see right. So I certainly wouldn't skim over any of them, but I can't just read you the agenda. You asked for my top picks and those are the top picks for me.

Speaker 1:

And also Marty hot off the press. You must be delighted with our just recently announced new keynote speaker as well, who's joining us for the GFF Charles Litchfield, deputy Director of the Atlantic Council and someone who's very well known, obviously writes a lot in papers and appears a lot in the news talking about the geopolitical environment, geoeconomics and the sort of changes that are going to be really at the heart of the event.

Speaker 3:

It's absolutely fantastic. I mean we're super grateful to have Charles attend and especially to occupy the number one keynote speech slot at the beginning of the conference right, and it's very much tied to the whole theme of the conference around geopolitics driving the markets for the next year. So I would say that that you know as much of a networking and client event as this is. Making time to see charles kick off uh with his views, um on geopolitical tensions would be a highly valuable investment in time okay, that's good.

Speaker 1:

Although, jonathan, you're still our favorite american here on the show, I'm not gonna throw that one in second favorite.

Speaker 3:

Now, that's fine.

Speaker 1:

It's a big country. Okay, now, as you can hear, we're all in very high spirits and really excited about the events coming up in a couple of weeks, and I hate to be the preview show, party pooper, but I have to be because we've run out of time. We've had an extra jam-packed show this week. And thank you very much, a big Clearstream Virtual Studio. Thank you to our special guest, and that you very much, a big Clearstream Virtual Studio. Thank you to our special guest, and that is, in no particular order, martin Seghetti, the head of collateral liquidity and lending solutions and, of course, a member of the Clearstream Security Services Management Committee.

Speaker 1:

And a huge thank you to Jonathan Lombardo, who is the global head of business development for FIC, derivatives and repo at Eurex. And, of course, huge thank you to Elodie Putz, the vice president of business management, who is strapping her New Balance trainers on right now, and yet she gets through at least one pair of trainers every event. So you know, think of those poor feet as she races all around making sure that you know, people like me are where we're supposed to be, and it's not easy, it is herding cats. And a big thank you, of course, to Frank Gast, the global head of sales for Eurex Repo, managing director there and my co-host, mr Christian Rossler.

Speaker 2:

It's always a pleasure, andrew, and I'm really looking forward to running the Central Bank and Sovereign Wealth Fund Forum in person together with you again in a couple of weeks. And, by the way, we're going to record as well a GFF podcast during the GFF Summit, aren't we?

Speaker 1:

That's right. So I will be recording a live podcast roaming around with people and, of course, with Christian Plus. Stay tuned on the social media channel that's linkedincom slash company, slash Clearstream, where you will see videos from myself and from Christian live and direct popping up from the event as we rove around talking to people and, in the meantime, from me, andrew Keith Walker, from everyone here in the virtual studio and from a very, very hardworking but excited GFF Summit team. Bye, bye, bye, bye, and don't forget, this podcast has been brought to you by Clearstream Banking and features members of the Clearstream team and special guests expressing their personal opinions, not the opinions of Clearstream as an organization. There's no representation made as to the accuracy or completeness of information in this podcast and is in no way meant to be taken as legal, tax or other financial advice.