What have been key priorities for the GPFA over the past 12 months?
Chris Benish: We have found our members really appreciate the opportunities we have created to connect with each other — whether that is virtual or in person. Because of this, we have been expanding our in-person opportunities, working with a variety of industry events such as the International Íø±¬³Ô¹Ï Lending Association (ISLA), ISLA Americas, the Canadian Íø±¬³Ô¹Ï Lending Association (CASLA), and other conferences globally to hold chances to meet alongside the events.
If our members are gathered in a particular place, we will create a meeting or networking opportunity so they can get together and discuss the industry among themselves. The topics discussed and the agendas vary, but we have received feedback that people like the beneficial owner-only opportunities to talk.
That feedback has led to discussions surrounding other ways we can build that connective tissue or networking infrastructure — whether it is having regional leads or working groups in different areas — it is all about getting more members involved and increasing connectivity.
We started as a securities finance focused organisation, but we have evolved to provide connections to a number of different parts within the association. For example, there is a working group of legal professionals among the members, another for technology and operations professionals, and there are others around risk and private debt.
Where the securities finance folk have been the primary point of contact for the GPFA, we are starting to find that there is a real interest in having other areas of the organisation connect with each other as well, and that has been really fruitful.
How is peer-to-peer beneficial owner lending reshaping access and efficiency in securities finance?
Benish: Peer-to-peer can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people and can take a number of forms. It can be everything from two beneficial owners that have a bilateral agreement and directly trade with each other without any other intermediaries, but can also be as simple as one beneficial owner getting approved as a borrower on another person’s securities approved borrowing list that runs through a traditional lending agent, just like any other trade would look.
This market, in particular, benefits from more participants, more liquidity, and more activity. Íø±¬³Ô¹Ï finance markets are structured so the more people that come to market and provide liquidity, collateral, and access, the more everybody benefits from that increased network effect. This means education really becomes critical to the work that the GPFA does, as well as to the work that industry leaders do — educating asset owners about their place in the ecosystem, and how these trades work and function is a key part in bringing more people and more assets to the table, therefore increasing liquidity for everyone.
Education is just as important as the networking opportunities provided by the GPFA — what do our members want to learn about? That is key to improving everybody’s understanding, which makes them more willing to access these markets, more willing to participate, and more willing to bring their assets to the table.
Nearly half of GPFA membership is Canadian, what factors do you think have driven this concentration?
Charles Lesaux: When I think about our members across Canada: the public sector, asset management, and pension plans, they have been recognised for quite a long-term as pioneers in the modern pension fund management industry. It is the Canadian model, and has been referenced in academic literature; it is characterised by internal management of assets, globally diversified portfolios, and a strong emphasis on direct investing. The first iteration of this model was established more than 35 years ago, and has since become a global benchmark.
This translates well to the securities finance landscape and some of the trends and the themes that are emerging in the industry. It is an approach that really reflects a philosophy centred around active management and long-term value creation, and I think that speaks to a lot of what we are seeing in the securities finance industry.
We are committed to staying at the forefront of the industry’s best practices, and the GPFA provides a platform and a forum for our members to share their experiences, best practices, and ideas.
When you think about the pace of change, the level of innovation, and the impact of technology, the GPFA occupies a valuable space, and it is that role that the association plays around knowledge and thought leadership that informed BCI’s decision to join and participate in the GPFA.
Benish: From a non-Canadian perspective, it seems as if there was already a very strong network effect among the Canadian plans — they know each other and communicate well, so it was a natural fit when something like the GPFA came along.
One of the first industry conferences the GPFA partnered with was CASLA, and it was really successful. We had a great meeting with a lot of the plans having attended specifically to hear the innovative things that the Canadians were working on.
I think it has been a really great, natural fit to have lots of the Canadian firms come to the table and share some of the innovative things that they are doing.
What innovations are emerging across platforms and digital marketplaces to support direct lending?
Benish: From my perspective, one of the hurdles is the operational burden of direct lending, whether you are building out a securities lending desk or just moving the pieces from point A to point B, and some of the digital marketplace innovations I have seen are a direct hit on reducing that operational burden.
This means the technology itself is becoming additive and supportive to organisations that want to move in that direction, where you do not have to build out a 50-person operations staff in order to do direct lending, you can rely more on technology and more systems to do some of the operational work.
Newer peer-to-peer activity as a result of technological advances is additive to existing activity. It is not replacing more traditional activities, it is trades that were not being done before. It is a net benefit to the whole industry in terms of bringing more liquidity to the table.
Lesaux: I agree with everything Chris said, and would simply add, at the front office level, or at the transactional level, there are economies of scale that can occur as these platforms that were introduced focus on execution, allowing beneficial owners and their partners to execute transactions, whereas now we are seeing an evolution towards the inclusion and adoption of direct lending or even peer-to-peer capabilities being introduced onto those platforms.
It is a natural extension of these execution-focused platforms to begin delivering that service between members, rather than between members and their partners. And it is definitely an emerging trend, in the last year and a half, and is something I know our members are watching closely, that also speaks to the diverse yet complementary needs that our members have in securities finance, particularly when you think about collateral management and liquidity management combined together.
It just allows you to scale and to grow in a much more efficient way.
What initiatives are you engaging in to advocate on behalf of your members and the broader asset owner community? Can you explore your success stories and some of the challenges you have faced?
Lesaux: GPFA Canada is a newly formed subgroup within the association that we launched with our inaugural kickoff call in January. It was really encouraging to see more than 35 people join the call from across Canada for a really productive discussion. The purpose of the call was to connect and launch GPFA Canada while discussing what we hope to accomplish, and more importantly, identify and prioritise some focus areas for the group. The high level of engagement across Canada was evident on the call, which we followed up with a survey to gather feedback to help shape the plans for the group in 2026. We believe that it is a member-led environment and it is their feedback that is really going to drive the agenda and the topics we focus on in the coming year.
Those topics include: sponsored clearing, central bank policy, and balance sheet management. No conversation in securities finance can be had without talking about distributed ledger technology (DLT), but even broader macro, economic, and geopolitical issues are all topics we would expect to unpack in 2026 with our members.
Our meetings are about creating a venue or a forum for our members to share ideas, themes, trends, and challenges that are emerging, and then taking those from GPFA Canada and bubbling them up, and communicating them to the broader GPFA global membership, creating an opportunity to have a seamless flow of information among all of our members, but starting at a regional level.
CASLA is an important date in the calendar for 2026, we will be hosting an in person meeting of the GPFA alongside the conference as an opportunity for our members to connect, network, and learn about new developments in the marketplace.
Benish: Canada is a microcosm of what we are seeing globally. It is about growth. It is about expansion and how we connect with all of our members.
We just had two new additions to our board of directors of GPFA — Amy Borgquist from ADIA and Cherie Jeffries from the Florida State Board of Administration. They have been really active members up to this point, and we are really excited for their energy and their enthusiasm to come and add to what we are doing and continue to push forward. Broadly speaking, the GPFA wants to be the place where asset owners can bring their questions, can bring their curiosity, and as the board, we work really hard to protect that grassroots and asset owner-focused ethos for all of our members, because that is really important to us.
It is our origin story. It is what we think our members appreciate about the GPFA, and so it is something that we hold very dear as we think about how to expand, how to bring in new entities, new members to the organisation.
Lesaux: The GPFA is truly a member created, member led organisation, and that is ingrained in our culture and something we want to continue to build on and protect.
Benish: One of the main challenges is the complexity of everything, while we are still an entirely volunteer-run association — everyone who is working at the GPFA is doing it alongside their full-time job.
So, finding the time to move significant initiatives forward is something that we want to work on, and that is why having new energy come to help the board, such as Charles and his co-lead in Canada, Ivoneke Taylor of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, as well as Amy, and Cherie joining the board, these are really important folks that are going to help build the next few years of the GPFA.
Lesaux: To further ensure a sustainable structure, my co-lead Ivoneke Taylor and my leadership term has been staggered. I have committed to a four-year term while Ivoneke has two years remaining in her leadership position.
Looking ahead for the next 12 months, what are some of the milestones the GPFA is looking toward, and how do you see the landscape developing?
Benish: I am very much looking forward to our annual in person meeting. Last year, we held it in Montreal. It was a smashing success. We had nearly 100 attendees from across the globe. This year, we are going to be hosted by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System in Columbus, Ohio.
We consistently hear that this event is one that our members look forward to each year, a chance to come together, have some dedicated time to have deep conversations about the work that they are doing, learn from each other and what our organisations are involved in.
That is something that we are really looking forward to, and we have seen incredible growth in that event each year that we have held it.
Our technology working group is also exploring some different ways that our members might connect outside of regular in person or virtual events. They are thinking about ways that we can connect, not just the securities finance people, but also the other working groups, the other areas of our organisation that have connectivity with each other, and how we can best support and facilitate that in a more asynchronous way for our global buy side peers.
Lesaux: When I think about what we are looking to accomplish in Canada, it is the success around the adjacent meeting at the CASLA conference in Toronto, where we will be hosting all of our members from around the world.
We want to continue the high level of engagement that we saw in the inaugural call in January, and to sustain that throughout the year, but also as we look forward to the years ahead.
Finally, it is about working with our partners globally to refine the model that we think will lead to the best outcome for all of our members. We know we have leadership in Asia Pacific, looking to Europe, and then the US and Canada.
We want to create the energy and the momentum in each specific region to really maximise the potential and the opportunity that we have as asset owners to capitalise on opportunities, but also to tackle some of the challenges and some of the exciting new trends that are emerging in the securities finance space.
The Global Peer Financing Association (GPFA) was formed in 2020 and is a non-profit business association consisting of more than 40 global asset owners and representing over US$11 trillion in assets. The association represents all types of global asset owners, including pensions, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and asset management businesses.
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