Stephen Howard

The Pan Asia Securities Lending Association ( PASLA ) the appointment of Stephen Howard as its first CEO, with responsibility for establishing and implementing PASLA’s engagement strategy with regulators, exchanges and other key stakeholders across Asia-Pacific and advocating for the association’s members.

Based in Hong Kong and report directly to the board, Howard has worked in banking and securities markets for nearly 30 years and has extensive trading and management experience in sell- and buy-side businesses.

Howard is the founder of a financial markets consultancy with a focus on equity derivatives and prime finance and is an expert witness. From 2020 to 2022, he was a member on the advisory board of the Sydney Stock Exchange. Before that, he was the head of trading and a portfolio manager at Enhanced Investment Products, an Asia ex-Japan hedge fund, from 2014 to 2017. He has 20 years of experience working on the sell-side, building and managing the Asia-Pacific trading business at NatWest Markets, ABN AMRO Bank and J.P. Morgan respectively.

“Asia-Pacific is undergoing a crucial period as capital markets gradually normalize post-pandemic,” Howard says. “Our aim is to ensure that PASLA continues to play an integral role in promoting open, transparent and efficient securities lending across Asia-Pacific and to support the growth of the broader equity markets across the region and global participation in them.”