Fixed Income & FX Leaders Summit APAC 2024
November 19, 2024
Equarius Hotel, Sentosa, Singapore
Day 2 - Thursday, September 19th 2019
8:00 am - 8:50 am
Registration and Breakfast
8:50 am - 8:55 am
Welcome Remarks
Suhana Begum, Conference Director, Fixed Income Leaders Summit
8:55 am - 9:00 am
Chairperson’s Opening Remarks
Brett Elvish -
Director,
Financial Viewpoint
Adapting To A New Market Paradigm
9:00 am - 9:20 am
Opening Keynote Presentation: FX as an asset class – Why should currencies be an integral part of the alternative components of any portfolio?
Ruchir Sharma -
MD & Head of APAC FX Trading,
Credit Suisse
- What are the drivers in other asset classes that are making FX look like an interesting alpha source?
- In an environment with low returns how do asset allocators view the alpha opportunity presented to them by FX?
- What concerns do asset allocators have about including FX as an asset class?
9:20 am - 10:00 am
Keynote Panel: Entering into a challenging and uncertain climate - In times of structural transformations, how can you best position your investment portfolio and how will investment strategies need to be adjusted?
Jeff Ng -
Chief Economist,
Continuum Economics
Pankaj Nagrath -
MD & Head, UHNW Advisory, Fixed Income & FX,
Bank of Singapore
Alexandre Bouchardy -
Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income Asia and AM Singapore,
Credit Suisse Asset Management
Yezdi Chinoy -
Regional CIO Asia,
Generali Asia
Colin Graham -
CIO, Multi Asset Solutions,
Eastspring Investments
Sanjay Guglani -
CIO,
Silverdale Funds
Sylvain Baude -
Executive Director and CIO,
Oclaner Asset Management
Fixed income markets have undergone significant structural change since the 2008 financial crisis. These seismic shifts are forcing investors to adapt to a new market paradigm that will challenge not only how they trade fixed income, but what types of products they use to build bond portfolios and manage risk.
In this Session, our speakers will examine the evolution of the bond market through three interconnected lenses: the liquidity environment, market structure and product preferences. All three are changing in the post-crisis era with implications for the shape of the future bond market and investors.
- How can you invest in the current market conditions and what are the risks and trading opportunities in times of structural transformations?
- Is the current market volatility conducive for investors to take a lot of risks?
- What do all these mean for the broad dollar trend and will dollar appreciation continue?
- With rate hikes affecting bond portfolios negatively, how can you better safe guard your portfolios and returns?
- Has quantitative easing ruined the investor landscape and will there be a further tightening of monetary policy by central banks?
Alexandre Bouchardy
Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income Asia and AM SingaporeCredit Suisse Asset Management
10:00 am - 10:20 am
Keynote: How is the role of non-bank liquidity providers evolving and how can they better work with traditional asset managers?
- How are non-bank liquidity providers playing a vital role in improving access to liquidity?
- What impact does working with non-traditional liquidity providers have on your traditional relationships and how can you maintain these?
- Non-traditional market makers - who are the alternative providers of liquidity in swaps and what does the emergence of these mean for the traditional market structure?
- How should you re-structure your desk on the back of increased electronification and the emergence of non-traditional liquidity providers?
- Expanding your list of counterparties- How can you be comfortable dealing with non-bank liquidity providers and how can you get this past your investment teams?
- Debate- with liquidity becoming de-centralised around a wider community of banks and NBLP, is this positive for the industry with more equality or does it lead to too much liquidity fragmentation?
Cracking China's Debt Conundrum
10:20 am - 10:50 am
Keynote Panel: The playoff between onshore and offshore Chinese bonds – With the gradual appreciation of the renminbi, how can you trade the onshore market while allocating to the offshore market strategically?
Ricco Zhang -
Director, Asia Pacific,
International Capital Market Association (ICMA)
Ken Hui -
Chief Operating Officer,
Fullgoal Asset Management
Hao Zhou -
Senior EM economist Asia,
Commerzbank
With China now being fully accounted in the Global Aggregate Index and the local currency Chinese bonds being the fourth largest currency component following the US dollar, euro and Japanese yen, what are the opportunities that lay ahead for foreign investors? Our speakers here will shed light on:
- What are the key factors and drivers of both the offshore and onshore markets?
- What are the issuers and investors looking for in each market?
- China On shore bonds: Does index inclusion support them in terms of where we are given all the problems?
- China bid has gone to China offer - As China's new bond issuance last year has struggled and are we going to see a continuation of this trend and will China bid come back?
- How much is the China bid worth in terms of the pricing?
- Are we going to see some increase in offshore China issuance - How is that expected moving forward and should we invest in more onshore in China Vs offshore?
10:50 am - 11:20 am
Morning Refreshment Break
The Evolution of Benchmarks
11:20 am - 11:50 am
Industry perspective: Navigating the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) – Assessing the world of new indices and alternative benchmarks to LIBOR
Brett Elvish -
Director,
Financial Viewpoint
Mushtaq Kapasi -
Chief Representative, Asia Pacific,
International Capital Market Association
Ross Allen -
Managing Director, Financial Services,
IHS Markit
- As these rates are utilised in virtually every corner of the financial markets worldwide, how should market participants prepare?
- The practicalities of benchmark reform - How have regulators handled this and what are the timelines for change?
- Assessing the new benchmarks for key geographical locations - How are you going to transition to these new benchmarks?
- How do reference rates differ from each other and how do the respective policies differ across jurisdictions?
- The implications of moving to an alternative benchmark - What will this mean for legacy contracts?
- What are the impacts of moving away from LIBOR on market pricing and risk management models?
- What are the drawbacks with alternative rates and the potential longevity of Libor once a mainstream alternative has been adopted?
- What are the key challenges associated with moving from Libor to alternative benchmarks and what types of risk will investors face once Libor is discontinued?
11:50 am - 12:10 pm
Keynote: Unlocking the region’s hidden wealth through tokenisation and creation new asset classes
Sam Ahmed -
Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific,
Deriv Asia
- Wasted assets: Significant amount of wealth not being circulated both in traditional asset classes and physical assets
- Where is the financing: Banks alone cannot finance a growing region and the move to private debt and non bank financing
- Digitalised asset back tokens: will instruments that have real time risk and performance monitoring be more attractive to investors?
- Overcoming regional fragmentation: can digital infrastructures with asset backed tokens be the catalyst for a seamless flow of capital across the region?
Rewriting Capital Markets
12:10 pm - 12:50 pm
360°Perspective: Disruptive technologies - What are the next big breakthroughs you should expect from the FINTECH world and how can they help to inject liquidity into the world of fixed-income and FX?
Sam Ahmed -
Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific,
Deriv Asia
Pankaj Nagrath -
MD & Head, UHNW Advisory, Fixed Income & FX,
Bank of Singapore
Mr Zennon Kapron -
Founder & Director,
Kapronasia
Kiet Tran -
Partner, APAC Head of Financial Services,
IHS Markit
Ned Phillips -
Founder and CEO,
Bambu
Getty Goh -
Executive Chairman and CEO,
CoAssets
Marco Baggioli -
General Manager - Business Development,
M-Daq
- Can FINTECH help “backward” bond market catch up?
- How has Fintech’s reach into bond markets enabled more transparency and efficiency?
- Enabling price transparency – How can FINTECH induce deal flow, foster new relationships and create more transparency around price.
- What is happening in AI, robotics, peer-to-peer platforms and cloud technology and how will these impact investments and trading in the next 5 years?
- Processing enormous amount of market data in a low latency environment – How can technology solve this for you?
12:50 pm - 1:50 pm
Networking Lunch
Track A: Fixed Income Trading | New Frontiers Trading Technologies
1:50 pm - 2:20 pm Fire-side Chat: Segregating your low touch from your high touch business - How can you embrace the machine learning and AI driven future to improve workflow efficiencies and strategically focus trader resources? Gareth Nicholson - Head Fixed Income, Bank of Singapore Jeremy J.R. Son - VP & Fixed Income Trader, AllianceBernstein Andy Ji - Head of Research, Blue Fire AIDeveloped markets have had the benefit of using new technologies like AI and automation to increase liquidity, transparency and the ease and speed of trades over the past few years. During that time, EM has stayed the course with little technological advancement and over 70% of EM trades are still done by voice. This presentation will shed light on where technology is going in EM and what you can do to properly prepare and take advantage.
- The rise of artificial intelligence, smart learning and automation- What is the future of human involvement in the execution process?
- High touch vs. low touch - What can you automate across your fixed income desk and what needs to retain the human touch?
- Managing the intelligence of big data - How are the buy side adopting this to facilitate the rise of automated trading on their desk?
- Smart learning, machine learning, obtaining data, and having the control to do this automatically or not- How can this be achieved?
- Establishing a best execution policy around automation- How can you define a set of criteria for your low touch trading to allow your traders to focus on the high touch business?
- How do you recruit, train & retain the appropriate human talent to handle this challenge and instill the correct behavioral change in a buy side organisation?
Track A: Fixed Income Trading | New Frontiers Trading Technologies
2:20 pm - 2:50 pm Presentation: Gaining the information edge - How to use data analytics to establish the best path to trade and justify your execution on a regular basis? Eiichiro Yanagawa - Senior Analyst, CelentLife has become somewhat easier for buy-side firms, with the sheer volume of data now available. While some firms feel like they are using this data well, others feel like they are missing out. This panel will outline opportunities for you to better compile and aggregate your data to improve:
- The evolution of best execution- How are leading buy side heads measuring best execution and what changes have they made to take advantage of electronic markets?
- More than just price- How can you determine the speed, liquidity, likelihood of execution and settlement, size and nature of the trade through your pre-trade analytics?
- How can you implement TCA and analytics when trades are not done electronically and how do you then prove best execution?
- Debate: Do you actually need TCA in fixed income to justify your execution?
Track A: Fixed Income Trading | New Frontiers Trading Technologies
2:50 pm - 3:10 pm All Star Panel: With the successful development of Delivery vs. Payment (DVP) capabilities using blockchain by MAS and SGX, how can you simplify your post-trade processes to further shorten settlement cycles? Pavel Bains - CEO, Bluzelle Eric Neo - Venture Partner, Golden Horse Fund Management Sam Ahmed - Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, Deriv Asia- How is blockchain currently being applied to fixed income markets to make trading, clearing and settlement more cost efficient?
- How does this technology work, how can you use it and what potential does it have to affect the current capital markets ecosystem?
- Reducing reliance on the clearing system- What does blockchain offer and how have trades already been settled outside the traditional clearing and settlement structure in a legal manner?
- New frontiers of performance- How can blockchain enable faster, more efficient settlement and how will this reduce settlement risk?
- Establishing the winners and losers- How can market participants embrace the benefits of blockchain technology whilst preserving their role in the capital markets industry?
- Bringing blockchain to the mass market- What are the current deficiencies around scalability and how can they be overcome?
Track B: FX Trading | Capitalising On New Alpha Opportunities
1:50 pm - 2:20 pm All Star Panel: With the sell side now leveraging technologies like blockchain, how will this change the way you trade FX and what new alpha opportunities does this bring to your trading desk? Brett Elvish - Director, Financial Viewpoint Javier Paz - CEO and Founder, DatumArc & Forex Datasource- How can distributed ledger transform and digitalise the processes in this space?
- How can block chain help you to better manage foreign exchange flows within your organisation?
- Vendor management vs. building internally - As more technology comes to FX markets where should you allocate resources and what factors should be considered?
- With ongoing technological innovation how can you keep track of new trends and make continuous investments to ensure you are maintaining a competitive advantage?
Track B: FX Trading | Capitalising On New Alpha Opportunities
2:30 pm - 2:50 pm Presentation: Turning big data into smart data - How to put new and alternative data sources to work and convert these into alpha generation opportunities Saeed Amen - Founder, CuemacroThe intense competition for FX trading venues may come down to the quality and use of data as a key differentiator. The FX market has witnessed a significant proliferation of trading venues coming to market over the course of the last several years, with expectations of major consolidation soon to come, however the use of data will be instrumental going forward to build and optimise a diverse liquidity network. In this presentation our speaker will address:
- How can superior data sets and methods of extracting information from data give you an advantage in investing?
- What alternative forms of data are the buy side using now to build out their portfolios and come up with new trade ideas?
- How can you integrate new data insights into your existing workflow, with alternative data (satellite information, weather data, foot traffic, etc.) and social media data adoption a growing focus?
- Turning data into alpha- How can you manage and utilize this data to extract new actionable trade ideas?
- Combining AI with big data- How can a data-driven, scientifically based and technologically aware research culture can produce sustainable alpha?
Track B: FX Trading | Capitalising On New Alpha Opportunities
2:50 pm - 3:10 pm Fire-side chat: Next generation algos – How is algorithmic trading being improved by the use of AI, machine learning and other advanced technologies? Kevin Gin - Founder & Principal, Executive Director, Alpha Capital Eric Busay - Founder, SRoL Consulting Jeremy J.R. Son - VP & Fixed Income Trader, AllianceBernstein- Market impact, price, performance, information leakage and risk- How can you establish these factors when incorporating new algos on your desk?
- Evaluating algo performance - What advanced measurements should you incorporate to best understand the success on your trading desk?
- What are the pitfalls you should be aware off when selecting new algos and integrating them in your execution process?
- What considerations go into developers when fine tuning their algos and how are they continuing to push the boundaries of current offerings?
- The future- How will algos further influence FX market over the next 5 years and how can you ensure you are well positioned to take advantage of this?
Track C: Portfolio Management | Asset Allocation 2020
1:50 pm - 2:30 pm All Star Panel: From divergence to convergence - What impact will the move towards quantitative tightening have on volatility and how should you position your portfolio to enhance returns? Vivek Sharma - Head of Global Asset Management, SEA and Middle East, Edelweiss Haren Shah - MD & Head of Investments, Taurus Wealth management Shantanu Shukla - VP, Global Markets, State Bank of India Callum Henderson - Senior Director, Economic Analysis, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) Binay Chandgothia - MD & Portfolio Manager, Principal Portfolio Strategies, Principal Global Investors- We are already in the QE tightening phase - when will the tide turn and after all these rate hikes the fed has to come back and reflect how it has impacted the asset markets?
- When does the quantitative tightening end and what are the drivers that will end the quantitative tightening
- What is the portfolio positioning once quantitative tightening ends and how will investors perceive on the duration risks?
- What are the drivers that will encourage fed to make the financial conditions make more easier or accommodative?
- Moving from QE to quantitative tightening - How it impacts and the changing monetary policy environment moving forward and what it means for investments opportunities in the market?
Callum Henderson
Senior Director, Economic AnalysisCaisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)
Binay Chandgothia
MD & Portfolio Manager, Principal Portfolio StrategiesPrincipal Global Investors
Track C: Portfolio Management | Asset Allocation 2020
2:30 pm - 2:50 pm Fire-side chat: Reaping the benefits of the ‘Green Wave” with responsible fixed income investing – How to achieve higher return potential with managed risk Warut Promboon - Head of Credit Research, Bondcritic Cedric Rimaud - Director of Emerging Markets Research Singapore, First Degree Asset Management Ricco Zhang - Director, Asia Pacific, International Capital Market Association (ICMA)With the recent green bond taxonomy labelling, US$5 billion worth of green bonds being issued and the launch of the 3 year green bond grant scheme in Sep 2018, how will this unveil a long-term stable return for investors? Our speakers here will examine:
- The rise of an asset class - What is
- Asia’s role in the drive to green and sustainable capital markets?
- What are the main reasons for SEA’s luke warm reception to green bonds?
- Much of the growth in Asian green bond issuance is in China - What can the finance industry do to boost green investments in developing nations in SEA?
- How can portfolio managers include ESG in the decision making, how they can achieve this and what kind of standards can they follow?
- The growing importance around these ESG investments both from the supplier and the demand side -How open are issuers to issue green bonds?
- What is the level of compliance costs that goes along with this and how are issuers getting compensated for the costs associated with reporting?
- What initiatives can IFC take to further increase the number of investors for banks in developing countries that issue green bonds?
Track C: Portfolio Management | Asset Allocation 2020
2:50 pm - 3:10 pm Fire-side chat: The rise of leveraged loans as a $1tn asset class - With warnings flagged by IMF about the breakneck pace of leveraged lending, what are the opportunities and risks you should be aware of? Jerry Jarrell - Principal, CEO, Vantage Investment- Sub-prime risks with this US leveraged loans - How much of a risk does it present to the global credit market?
- What are some of the trends in the leverage loans space in the US in terms of debt service ability?
- Collateralised loan obligations – How big is the CLO space in Asia who are the active buyers?
- What kind of default risk we can expect in this cycle when the credit cycle does turn and what will be the recovery value?
3:10 pm - 3:30 pm
Afternoon Networking Break
Mainstreaming Infrastructure Finance
3:30 pm - 3:50 pm
Keynote interview: Are infrastructure bonds the next big thing in infrastructure financing?
Ricco Zhang -
Director, Asia Pacific,
International Capital Market Association (ICMA)
Jerry Jarrell -
Principal, CEO,
Vantage Investment
- Can project bonds become a major part of Asia’s capital market landscape?
- Will the major opportunities prove to be in the offshore or domestic markets?
- How can local currency bonds serve as an alternative avenue for infrastructure financing in Asia Pacific?
- How can infrastructure bonds fill the region’s infrastructure investment gap?
- Can project bonds be considered as a separate fixed income asset class?
What are the key factors that make local currency bond financing difficult for infrastructure projects in developing Asia?
3:50 pm - 4:15 pm
Closing Keynote Panel: Overall Outlook – Conference Wrap Up: What will the next 5 years bring to the Finance industry in APAC?
Brett Elvish -
Director,
Financial Viewpoint
Stephen Fisher -
Chairman and CIO,
First Degree Global Asset Management
Pierre-Emmanuel Charlier -
Head of Fixed Income Trading, Asia,
Pictet Asset Management
Pankaj Nagrath -
MD & Head, UHNW Advisory, Fixed Income & FX,
Bank of Singapore
Ambarish Ray -
Fixed Income Trader, Rates & FX Asia,
T Rowe Price
Ambarish Ray
Fixed Income Trader, Rates & FX AsiaT Rowe Price