Local currencies in the global South: tools for debt and trade resilience

John Bosco Sebabi

Deputy Chief Executive Officer

Pan-African Payment & Settlement System

Simon Huckle

Head of Emerging Market Financial Institutions

Crown Agents Bank

Nathalie Louat

Global Director, Trade and Supply Chain Finance

International Finance Corporation

Neeraj Kapur

Chief Executive Officer

Crown Agents Bank

Louis Kasekende

Executive Director

Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa

Isaac Muhanga

Chief Operating Officer

Bank of Zambia

Duarte Pedreira

Global Head of Trade and Working Capital

Crown Agents Bank

Harizafy Ralarosy

Director, Research, Financial Stability and International Relations

Banky Foiben'i Madagasikara

Adolfo Sarmiento

Senior Adviser, Financial Services & Local Currencies

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uruguay

Mark Sobel

Vice Chair and Chief Economist

OMFIF

Mark Sobel is Chief Economist and Vice Chair at OMFIF. Mark is a veteran US Treasury official, who was at the forefront of international financial diplomacy for two decades.

Mark, who represented the US on the International Monetary Fund executive board up to April 2018, has had a 40-year Treasury career with extensive around-the-world engagement.

He works with OMFIF in dealings with private and public sector organisations, speak regularly on international and US policy, and provide OMFIF members with insight and analysis.

Mark was Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for international monetary and financial policy between 2000 and early 2015. He helped lead Treasury preparations for G7 and G20 finance minister and central bank governor meetings, formulated US positions at the IMF, and coordinated Treasury and regulatory agencies’ work in the Financial Stability Board.

Mark founded the US/EU Financial Market Regulatory Dialogue and chaired an international group of private and official sovereign debt experts that developed enhanced collective action clauses for sovereign debt restructuring. He managed the $100bn-plus Treasury Exchange Stabilization Fund and played a key role in US foreign exchange policy including coordinating the Treasury’s semi-annual foreign exchange report on China and other countries.