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18 February 2020
Deutsche Bank’s new global head of agency securities lending, Rebekah Flohr talks to SLT about her vision for how to take the bank’s programme to new heights
Image: Shutterstock
Congratulations on your new role. You’re coming into this securities lending role with a global markets background. Can you talk us through your experience?
It’s true, I’ve been in global markets for most of my career. Before Deutsche Bank I was at J.P. Morgan selling derivatives clearing and prime brokerage products. I came here to do a similar role but pretty quickly I was asked to lead an effort to sell our transaction banking products to institutional clients and one of the products was the agency lending business. As a result of that, along with my prime brokerage experience, I’ve been involved in securities lending in one way or another for a long time.
How will this broad experience and global outlook influence your management of the bank’s agency lending programme?
It makes me aware of the global resources that we have as an investment bank. We have amazing research resources, for example, that would not traditionally be married to our agency lending business but it could be woven in to create more value for our clients. This is just one of the things we’re already trying to do and something I’m very excited to reap the benefits of.
This new role comes alongside your existing role managing global sales and securities services in the Americas. How will you manage these responsibilities?
I see these roles as going hand in hand. They are very co-mingled in my mind. We have growth strategies across the board for both custody and agency securities lending (ASL) businesses and I’ve always viewed our securities lending service as a real differentiator between us and others in the market. Our out-performing ASL product can offer real value to new and existing clients and help drive growth for our wider securities services business.
What are your first priorities now you’ve officially taken over the reins?
First and foremost, I’m very lucky to be able to leverage a very experienced and established team that’s already in place, along with long-term client relationships, so we have a great starting point with which to build out our service. My first aim is to bring in other parts of the firm to assist that existing foundation better.
I want to tap into my connectivity and work with colleagues such as Michaela Ludbrook (Deutsche Bank’s head of securities services and head of corporate bank for the Americas), to allow the ASL business to benefit from the broader resources at the firm.
We are also focused on accessing new technology resources and have made some engineering hires. The aim is to take the core system that has been servicing our client base for a long time and make that less burdensome on us and them.
We are constantly evaluating the arrows in our quiver to maximise value for all our clients, be that on the borrower base or looking at the types of securities our clients want to lend. Something I’ve been really impressed with so far is the high standards our team has with regards to customer service.
Do you see Deutsche Bank’s ASL programme expanding its services in emerging markets or targetting new client types?
Emerging markets are a big priority for our wider securities services business because that lines up with our custody offering. We partner a lot with our emerging market colleagues for full value chain custody and ASL services. This means we’re involved from the initial request from a client to gain exposure to a specific country all the way to making that happen and opening accounts and settling securities there.
Do you see yourself as more of a custody lending agent?
Absolutely not, we are very agnostic in that regard. The fact that we’ve re-incorporated our ASL business back into the securities services arm shows that we value our corporate banking products and aim to marry up all their growth strategies.
ASL was part of our global markets equities division for a time until July 2019 when we brought it back to securities services because of its ability to complement other services in
that area.
Does Deutsche Bank’s sell-off of its prime brokerage business affect its ASL business at all or change the way you sell those cluster of services to clients?
No. Although I’m personally sad to not work directly with my former colleagues in equity prime brokerage, there was very little crossover in terms of client coverage. The client experience with ASL should be very much unchanged except for improvements such as our increased focus on technology.
Where are the opportunities to capture revenue and growth this year?
There are definitely a lot of things on the regulatory agenda this year that will bring opportunities. Elsewhere, our focus on technology and partnering with other areas of Deutsche Bank’s global business is where I want to start.
It’s true, I’ve been in global markets for most of my career. Before Deutsche Bank I was at J.P. Morgan selling derivatives clearing and prime brokerage products. I came here to do a similar role but pretty quickly I was asked to lead an effort to sell our transaction banking products to institutional clients and one of the products was the agency lending business. As a result of that, along with my prime brokerage experience, I’ve been involved in securities lending in one way or another for a long time.
How will this broad experience and global outlook influence your management of the bank’s agency lending programme?
It makes me aware of the global resources that we have as an investment bank. We have amazing research resources, for example, that would not traditionally be married to our agency lending business but it could be woven in to create more value for our clients. This is just one of the things we’re already trying to do and something I’m very excited to reap the benefits of.
This new role comes alongside your existing role managing global sales and securities services in the Americas. How will you manage these responsibilities?
I see these roles as going hand in hand. They are very co-mingled in my mind. We have growth strategies across the board for both custody and agency securities lending (ASL) businesses and I’ve always viewed our securities lending service as a real differentiator between us and others in the market. Our out-performing ASL product can offer real value to new and existing clients and help drive growth for our wider securities services business.
What are your first priorities now you’ve officially taken over the reins?
First and foremost, I’m very lucky to be able to leverage a very experienced and established team that’s already in place, along with long-term client relationships, so we have a great starting point with which to build out our service. My first aim is to bring in other parts of the firm to assist that existing foundation better.
I want to tap into my connectivity and work with colleagues such as Michaela Ludbrook (Deutsche Bank’s head of securities services and head of corporate bank for the Americas), to allow the ASL business to benefit from the broader resources at the firm.
We are also focused on accessing new technology resources and have made some engineering hires. The aim is to take the core system that has been servicing our client base for a long time and make that less burdensome on us and them.
We are constantly evaluating the arrows in our quiver to maximise value for all our clients, be that on the borrower base or looking at the types of securities our clients want to lend. Something I’ve been really impressed with so far is the high standards our team has with regards to customer service.
Do you see Deutsche Bank’s ASL programme expanding its services in emerging markets or targetting new client types?
Emerging markets are a big priority for our wider securities services business because that lines up with our custody offering. We partner a lot with our emerging market colleagues for full value chain custody and ASL services. This means we’re involved from the initial request from a client to gain exposure to a specific country all the way to making that happen and opening accounts and settling securities there.
Do you see yourself as more of a custody lending agent?
Absolutely not, we are very agnostic in that regard. The fact that we’ve re-incorporated our ASL business back into the securities services arm shows that we value our corporate banking products and aim to marry up all their growth strategies.
ASL was part of our global markets equities division for a time until July 2019 when we brought it back to securities services because of its ability to complement other services in
that area.
Does Deutsche Bank’s sell-off of its prime brokerage business affect its ASL business at all or change the way you sell those cluster of services to clients?
No. Although I’m personally sad to not work directly with my former colleagues in equity prime brokerage, there was very little crossover in terms of client coverage. The client experience with ASL should be very much unchanged except for improvements such as our increased focus on technology.
Where are the opportunities to capture revenue and growth this year?
There are definitely a lot of things on the regulatory agenda this year that will bring opportunities. Elsewhere, our focus on technology and partnering with other areas of Deutsche Bank’s global business is where I want to start.
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