February 9, 2023 - Realizing that this premise often leads to success, our first operations initiative of the year, the DIRECTORY AND ESCALATION MATRIX has been met with enthusiasm by major dealers and buy-side accounts. Designed to improve communications among leveraged loan market participants, it will help members in knowing whom to contact regarding issues relating to trade settlement, loan servicing, trade payments, callbacks, trade reconciliations, onboarding, tax, data site access and audit confirms for both unsettled loan trades and for settled loan positions.
The Directory and Escalation Matrix will only be given to LSTA members that provide their contact information. It will not be posted on the LSTA website as a general member benefit.
This is designed to be a positive tool, but all good things come with parameters and the most important is that the Directory is not abused. What do we mean by this? That the escalation contacts contained within the matrix should be used to address issues which are either urgent or significantly aged, only after normal channels have been exhausted.
- Initial attempts to resolve issues must flow through normal channels, e.g., using the appropriate contact person on the trade ticket or group email for the question.
- Any attempt to reach an individual senior level escalation contact should be done by contacting the first escalation contact prior to the second, prior to contacting the third, if any. There should be no attempt made to reach any individual contact until a minimum of two attempts over a one week or more period have been made and gone unanswered.
Furthermore, by using this Escalation Matrix, parties agree that it will not be shared with anyone except senior-level managers and department heads within their organizations. While your third-party providers may be listed as the group email at the top of your list, the Directory is not expected to be shared with your outsourced third-party service provider but rather used internally within your bank/buy-side institution. That said, third party providers who act as outsourced agents are included within the matrix. Bottom line: Please exercise good judgment and be responsible in your distribution and use of this sensitive information.
If you have not already responded with your matrix and would still like to complete one on behalf of your institution, please utilize the format (i.e. bank or buy-side, as appropriate ) and return to ehefferan@lsta.org. It is VERY IMPORTANT that the format be followed for ease of compilation by the LSTA.
