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The European Primary Dealers Association (EPDA), an affiliate of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), today announced its Executive Board for 2008. The new executive board will be co-chaired by Paul Spurin, head of European government bond trading at ABN Amro and Christophe Rivoire, deputy head of rates trading at HSBC.
Other executive board members are: vice chair, Paolo Croce, European head of rates at UBS and treasurer, Gunther Fluyt, ING’s global head developed markets rates & credits.
Outgoing co-chairs are: Giovanni Mazzocchi, head of
ecommerce strategy rates distribution at Barclays Capital and Gonzalo
Rodriguez, managing director and global head of the liquid bonds business at Calyon.
“The Association expresses heartfelt thanks to Giovanni and Gonzalo for their dedication and hard work over the last year,” said Mark Austen, managing director of the EPDA. “We also thank Nicolas Galmiche for two years of service on the board.” Galmiche is head of European government bond securities at JP Morgan.
“We look forward to working with the new executive board, which in keeping with the EPDA’s philosophy, rotates members in order to keep fresh ideas coming to the fore,” said Austen.
Spurin and Rivoire will continue the Association’s work to promote policies that will encourage integration and efficiency within the EU government bond market and to address frontline issues.
“The EPDA has been hard at work cooperating with EU debt management offices and others to address the issue of increased competition among trading venues. This is an important issue for members and issuers as it drives down costs and creates more opportunities for innovation,” said Spurin. “Thus far Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Spain all have recently announced measures to increase competitiveness and we anticipate more eurozone countries to follow suit throughout the year,” he added.
In 2008 the EPDA will advocate on behalf of its members, the Eurozone government bond primary dealers, with relevant government and regulatory bodies through engagement and market briefing notes.
“Given recent market conditions, the Association also will concentrate on promoting the European government bond market in conjunction with willing issuers as a safe, liquid product and a good investment choice globally,” said Rivoire.
