ACSDA Gathers in Panama for 10th General Assembly
Members of the Americas’ Central Securities Depository Association (ACSDA) met in Panama City in February for the organization’s 10th Annual General Assembly.
“The assembly was an opportunity to expand on the association’s strategic vision and set our plans for 2008, and to welcome three new member depositories,” said Mary Ann Callahan, DTCC managing director, Global Relations and Development, and the current president of ACSDA.
Expanding membership and reach
With the additions of Caja Venezolana de Valores Inc. (CVV) of Venezuela, the Barbados Central Securities Depository Inc. and the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX)/Bermuda Depository of Securities (BDS), ACSDA’s membership now consists of 25 central securities depositories and clearing organizations from 30 nations in the Americas and South Africa.
“In the past year, ACSDA exceeded its goal, as defined during the 2007 General Assembly, to strengthen the organization’s impact regionally and globally,” said Callahan. “As we look ahead, we are promoting even more seamless connections between our members and industry colleagues globally.”
Broad industry participation
“We were honored that, in addition to our members, so many colleagues joined us in Panama as speakers,” Callahan said. Among them were Josef Landolt and Peter Gnepf of UBS, representing the International Securities Services Association (ISSA); Joel Merere of Euroclear, chairman of the European Central Securities Depositories Association or ECSDA (ACSDA’s European counterpart); Mario Guadamillas of the World Bank; Elvira Schamann, secretary general of FIAB, the Federation of Ibero-American Stock Exchanges. Lindsay Brooks of JPMorgan, representing the Association of Global Custodians; Simon Thomas of Thomas Murray; and John Falk of S.W.I.F.T also shared their insights with the group.
“We were briefed about the Panama market by Eduardo Dominguez and Ivan Diaz, chairman and general manager, respectively, of our host depository, LatinClear, as well as Roberto Brenes, CEO of Bolsa de Valores de Panama, and Carlos Barsallo, president of the National Securities Commission,” Callahan added, “and we even had an evening tour of the Panama Canal.”
The three-day assembly concluded with a video retrospective of ACSDA’s first decade. The association also paid tribute to one of its founders, the late Allan Cooper, president and CEO of the Canadian Depository for Securities Limited, who passed away last December.
On the 2008 calendar
The organization’s priorities for 2008 include an ACSDA seminar at the Canadian Depository in Toronto in October, committee work on corporate governance, corporate actions, risk management, joint product initiatives and linkages, messaging standards, and finalizing the strategic plan. Publishing a special edition of the newsletter profiling all 25 members is also on the agenda.
ACSDA plans to stay active globally, including a global meeting in Tokyo, Japan, in April, and meetings with ECSDA in Copenhagen and ISSA in Wolfsberg, Switzerland. ACSDA’s General Assembly in 2009 will be hosted by Cavali, ICLV, in Lima, Peru. @