Tesco Pension Fund has appointed CME Group’s former head of clearing to advise it on issues arising from European interest rate swaps clearing and the Market Abuse Regulations (MAR)
Adam Husted joined the fund – which has more than £8 billion in assets under management – as a project manager and consultant six weeks ago, having worked as a consultant for Ocreus Group for the previous four months.
Husted worked as head of clearing and business development for CME Clearing Europe between 2013 and 2015.
Ocreus Group is a financial consultancy for banks and buy-side clients which assists firms in meeting their European regulatory obligations.
He joins at a time where pension funds have to prepare for radical changes to their derivatives operating models, in order to comply with European clearing rules.
A temporary exemption of the clearing rules for pension funds expires next year.
Speaking at The Trade Derivatives webinar on buy-side interest rate swaps clearing, Barry Hadingham, head of derivatives and counterparty risk at Aviva Investors, said pension funds and other firms may be forced to move into clearing swaps ahead of the mandate due to the heightened margin costs of trading uncleared swaps.
“They have no choice but to move sooner, and there is still a lot of negotiating going on between clearing brokers and clients to get arrangements in place,” says Hadingham.
Husted had previously worked as a consultant and project manager for Insight Investment, and was European head of product development for OTC clearing and rates at Barclays Capital.
Husted did not respond to a request for comment. Tesco Pension Investment – the organisation responsible for the Tesco Pension Fund could not be reached to comment.