January 20, 2021 - On January 19, 2021, the LSTA held its Annual Member Meeting, electing its 2021 Board of Directors. The Board of Directors are a dedicated lot, and turnover was modest: After more than 20 years in the industry, in late 2020 Peter Nolan (Antares) retired and consequently stepped down from the Board. Peter’s good counsel (and even better sense of humor) will be sorely missed. Replacing Peter will be Claudette Kraus, Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets at CIFC. Claudette has nearly 30 years of experience in corporate lending, first on the sellside at Citi and JP Morgan, and later on the buyside at CIFC. We look forward to Claudette’s contribution on the Board.
The LSTA Board (and staff) in 2020 – and going into 2021 – face some of the most material challenges in recent loan history. The market continues to confront the greatest pandemic in a century – and thus far is intact, if not unscathed. Moreover, the loan market continues to evolve, to change in ways that are favorable and unfavorable so there is a great deal of work ahead of us. The challenges range from implementation and operationalization of LIBOR replacement to a possible regulatory revival. The political landscape, never easy to negotiate, may be more challenging in the coming year. But the LSTA will be proactive in offering market based solutions. As just one example, the LSTA and many of our members are already leading in the area of sustainability, where we’ve worked to focus our industry not on rules, prohibitions and restrictions, but on transparency. This way, investors and lenders can develop their own constraints and guidelines based on data and information provided by borrowers and allowing lenders to make decisions that consider self-determined ESG principles.
Of course, we also have a lot of regular way blocking and tackling: On the operations side, we continue to work with members on technological, process and behavioral solutions to help facilitate loan trading and settlement. On the legal side, work to improve our library of forms and documents carries on – this year we look to add a number of specialized forms that better address the needs of direct lending. We continue to build the library of data and analytics that inform our decision making and advocacy, all the way from settlement liquidity to systemic risk. Our commitment to engage and educate our members is ongoing– virtually in the Spring and Summer (with our Ops and Summer Series) and hopefully in person in November at the LSTA Annual Loan Market Conference. All these efforts require a dedicated and engaged Board, members of which were elected on Tuesday. Please join us as we congratulate the 2021 LSTA Board!
