DTCC’s Laura Klimpel, General Manager of Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) & Head of SIFMU Business Development, has been named to The World Federation of Exchanges (The WFE) 2023 Women Leaders List. The WFE’s Women Leaders initiative aims to shine the spotlight on some of the talented and gifted women in our industry.
Related: DTCC's Keisha Bell named to "Elite 100" list
Klimpel serves as the general manager of DTCC’s Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) and as head of SIFMU Business Development at the firm. Within these roles, she focuses on expanding FICC's clearance and settlement services to a broader array of market participants, as well as enhancing FICC's existing service offerings to further reduce risk and provide optimal capital and operational efficiencies to member firms. She also supports the development and implementation of the overall strategy and prioritization of SIFMU initiatives, working with cross-functional teams and industry partners to develop strategies for building new products and services that mitigate risk, create market efficiencies and reduce costs.
Professional Highlights and Challenges in 2022
Klimpel’s contributions have been key to the expansion and delivery of DTCC’s new FICC and SIFMU capabilities. She leverages her collaborative leadership style and her diverse professional background in clearing, regulation and business development to accelerate the achievement of numerous projects. Over the past year, she has:
1. Led and advanced industry dialogue on the value of increased central clearing within the U.S. Treasuries market, building upon a recent DTCC white paper, “Making the U.S. Treasury Market Safer for All Participants: How FICC’s Open Access Model Promotes Central Clearing.” Efforts included regularly engaging with regulators, trade associations (such as SIFMA and FIA), industry groups (such as TMPG), and a wide array of market participants around how a potential expansion of the clearing of Treasury activity could impact firms, and how FICC’s open access approach to central clearing could facilitate a potential expansion.
2. Worked with regulators and key stakeholders over several years, enabling FICC to obtain recognition in the EU as a Tier 1 third-country CCP in accordance with applicable EU regulations. This included engaging with ESMA and FICC’s U.S. regulators and communicating effectively with EU clients on the status of FICC’s efforts.
3. Led the launch of the National Securities Clearing Corporation’s (NSCC) new Securities Financing Transaction (SFT) Clearing Service, allowing NSCC to operate a central clearing and settlement infrastructure for overnight borrowing and loaning of equity securities (collectively, securities financing transactions or “SFTs”).
Inspirations for Success
Klimpel is motivated by the far-reaching effects of the work DTCC does day-to-day, and the role she plays in delivering upon the firm’s important mission of protecting global financial markets. The engagement and positive focus Laura witnesses from her team, DTCC’s clients and other key stakeholders, as well as the continued pursuit of efficiency and driving improvements to how financial markets operate, are incredibly inspiring to her.
In addition to this, she is thankful to have had the opportunity to work with highly talented individuals over the course of her career, including lawyers, government officials, business, risk, technology and operations experts. She considers their mentorship and guidance as critical to her expertise and world view.
She believes that experiences, and not only people, have shaped her professionally. Entering the industry at the start of the 2008 financial crisis and witnessing first-hand the impact it had, as well as having the opportunity to support the industry as the legislative and rule-making process was introduced, has shaped her perspective and strong belief in the value and the importance of services market infrastructure providers like DTCC and the work they do every day to ensure the safety and soundness of the global financial marketplace.
Advice for Aspiring Women Leaders
Klimpel believes it is important to be confident and take on challenging opportunities. She encourages young women to be outspoken and inquisitive, actively seeking out interesting work within their own organizations, and more broadly, as often the best opportunities come unexpectedly. She recalls that some of her biggest rewards have come from taking the biggest personal and professional risks and pushing her own limits.
In terms of leadership, she is a strong believer that a team is greater than the sum of its parts. As a leader, she works to develop strong teams of people with their own areas of expertise who can effectively collaborate to create the most innovative and robust solutions possible. It is this approach that has enabled Laura and her team to deliver exciting new projects, all while developing her staff.
Lastly, Klimpel encourages young women to be part of a driving force reshaping the financial-services landscape, a traditionally male-dominated industry. She has witnessed, first-hand, the great work and recognition that her fellow female peers have achieved in recent years. A testament to this is DTCC’s historic moment where, for the first time ever, the three systemically important financial market utility businesses of DTCC (which process transactions worth over two quadrillion dollars annually) are run by three women.
This article was originally published to The WFE’s Focus on March 1, 2023.
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