I was invited to attend and participate in a securities finance roundtable held by Citi in Amsterdam last week. The audience was largely made up of asset managers in the Dutch market representing their underlying pension fund clients. Citi gave an update on the market this year, the latest thinking on CCP, the highs and lows of this year’s dividend season and their view on the appetite for exclusives. We then heard from a Dutch asset manger with an established lending programme who described some of the issues frustrating growth in the Dutch market. The losses from reinvestment activity has been met with a lack of enthusiasm from stakeholders and regulators and some pension funds that suspending during the worst of the liquidity crisis have not returned to lending and indeed, may not do so. Of most interest was a presentation by a major borrower and bank holding company that described what could be an important market development.
