What can you tell us about your role at Siepe as a Director of Asset Administration? What brought you to Siepe?
In my role at Siepe, I am responsible for maintaining activities associated with financial instruments within portfolios. This involves overseeing transactions related to loans, bonds, structured products, and other assets, and covers trades, principal paydowns, and any other actions that occur within the investment lifecycle.
I joined Siepe in mid-June of this year, following a recommendation from my colleague Shelly Torkelson, who is the current Director of Middle Office at Siepe, and was drawn to the Company’s strong commitment to technology. Siepe’s interest in automation and innovation stood out, and I felt that the management team are very supportive of new ideas, which is one of the reasons we’ve been able to continually enhance our processes and deliver new efficiencies to our customers.
What are some of the biggest challenges that the industry faces? And how has the loan servicing industry evolved?
The primary challenge in the industry is managing the communication between the borrower and lender for different activities, especially unscheduled activities, such as restructures and unexpected paydowns. Lenders often follow different protocols; for example, choosing to exit or stay in a facility, which adds complexity when coordinating at a global level.
Regarding evolution, I have been in the loan servicing industry since 1997, when I started at Texas Commerce Bank before it transitioned to JP Morgan Chase. I’ve witnessed a lot of change: agent bank notices used to be faxed as physical documents, the structure of rates and Index options has changed. However, the basic activity has remained the same, but the technological advancements we’ve seen are tremendous.
Is there an opportunity that you feel the business leaders in the credit space are missing out on?
Absolutely, I believe that leaders in the credit space are missing out on automation in private credit. Currently, identifiers and automation are well-established in the CLO and syndicated loan sphere, but not in private credit. Expanding identifiers and automation into this would streamline processes and bring greater efficiency to an increasingly important segment of the market.
Are there any exciting initiatives you’re working on that you can share? And what sets Siepe’s asset administration apart from other firms? What are some operational improvements or innovations that you’re excited to bring to Siepe in the near future?
We are constantly enhancing the day-to-day operations of our Middle-Office and Collateral Admin solutions, and a significant focus of that is on leveraging AI and machine learning. By using this technology to extract data from PDFs and integrating the information into our tracking system, we’re able to significantly increase the efficiency and accuracy of documentation. It also enables us to automate asset-building processes and improve overall data integrity, which aligns with Siepe’s vision to stay ahead of industry needs.
Our commitment to utilizing new and advancing technologies, along with the team’s expertise in asset administration and collateral management is what sets us apart. We leverage technology to enable “straight-through” processing at the portfolio level, which then allows our team to focus only on the exceptions, rather than routine processing. This creates efficiencies across the board.
Managing various asset classes requires attention to detail. How do you ensure accuracy and compliance in asset transactions, especially when working with diverse financial instruments?
We process transactions at the portfolio level, ensuring that they align with global transactions at the facility level. Reconciliations to cash are then performed to make sure everything is accounted for. Our goal is to achieve same-day cash and reporting, which is why we’ll be expanding our team to include staff in the later hours of the day. This will increase our capability to handle global demands and expand our global presence.
Can you share a fun fact?
Not many people know this about me, but outside of my work at Siepe, I am a passionate whiskey enthusiast! I have a large collection of rare and unique whiskeys. Two of my favorite bottles acquired over the years are 23 Year Old Pappy Van Winkle and Single Barrel Elmer T Lee.
