Effective 1 November 2009, this website is no longer being updated. Please see AFME's new website at www.afme.eu. For content specific to the ESF, please see the page for AFME's new Securitisation Division.

 

ESF Committees and Working Groups

The primary goals of the ESF are consensus, advocacy, and education.  To achieve these goals, the ESF is organised into a network of standing committees and working groups dealing with specific projects.  Members are encouraged to participate actively in one or more of these committees, through which much of the ESF’s work takes place. Please click here for the full ESF organisational chart.

Apart from the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, whose members are appointed and/or elected, each ESF member firm is entitled to appoint one primary and one alternative representative to each committee or working group. 

The ESF Committees and Working Groups are as follows:

  • Board of Directors: This is the governing body of the ESF. It consists of up to thirty-five members, with representation from all categories of membership. Please find the list of ESF Board Directors and Co-Chairs 2009 here.
  • Executive Committee: This is a smaller subset of the Board of Directors and includes the Chairs of each standing Committee.
  • Market Standards and Practices Committee: This committee is responsible for developing and implementing uniform securitisation industry guidelines, standards and practices. The Committee is leading the work on the initiatives to increase transparency. The following four working groups are working in close coordination with the committee:
    • RMBS Working Group: This group is currently dealing with pre- and post-issuance standardisation for this specific asset class;
    • Researchers Working Group: This group is focusing on statistical information on the securitisation market;
    • Traders Working Group: This group deals with liquidity and trading issues;
    • European Subprime Working Group: This group addresses issues arising from the US subprime market.
  • Trustees Committees: This committee deals with a number of trustee issues in the securitisation industry and in improvements in the bondholder communication.
  • Regional Committees for the following specific jurisdictions:
    • German Committee: This committee focuses on promoting securitisation in the German market.
    • Russia/Eastern Europe Committee: This committee focuses on securitisation in the emerging Russian and Eastern European markets and the development of dedicated legal frameworks for securitisation.
    • Italian Committee: This committee focuses on promoting securitisation in the Italian market.
    • Spanish Committee: This committee focuses on promoting securitisation in the Spanish market.
  • Legal, Regulatory and Capital Committee: This committee is responsible for overseeing the ESF’s legal and regulatory advocacy activities, including securities and bank regulatory issues, tax and related matters and is further subdivided into the following groups:
    • Market Abuse Directive Working Group: This group is actively dealing with the implementation of the Market Abuse Directive in Europe.
    • Basel II Working Group: This group is actively dealing with the implementation of the Capital Requirements Directive and the regulations across Europe.
    • Rome I Working Group: This group is actively dealing with the implementation of the Rome I regulation.
    • Solvency II Working Group: This group is actively dealing with the new Solvency II Directive.
  • Investors Committee: This committee deals with investor issues and concerns and it is on the forefront on the initiatives to improve the information available for investors and other market participants.
  • Conference Planning Committee: Oversees information and educational initiatives focusing in particular on the annual conference and other events across Europe.
  • CDO Committee: This committee is focused on CDOs including credit derivatives and structured credit products. The committee is actively involved in creating new reporting standards and it includes the following group:
    • CDO Collateral Managers Working Group: This group is for CDO collateral managers.
  • Accounting Committee: This group focuses on accounting issues affecting the securitisation markets. It is also includes the following group:
    • Tax Working Group: This group focuses on tax issues affecting the securitisation markets.