CRS Team
PGGM Investment Management
The Asset Management department within PGGM is tasked with the investment of the collective pension assets of PGGM’s pension fund clients, with the vast majority being accounted for by PFZW’s assets. Broadly speaking, the investment categories can be divided into public market and private market asset classes, which make up about 75% and 25% of the asset mix respectively. Next to the investment teams primarily responsible for managing these asset classes, the Investment Management organisation contains Risk Management, Tax, Legal & Regulatory and Operational functions.
PGGM Private Markets
The CRS team is a front-office investment team within the Private Markets segment. The Private Markets segment focuses on non-listed investments with an equity(-like) return profile. Besides the Credit Risk Sharing mandate managed by the CRS team, there are Private Real Estate, Private Equity, Infrastructure and Insurance Linked Investments mandates in PGGM’s Private Markets segment.
Credit Risk Sharing
Over the last nineteen years, PGGM and PFZW have developed a world-leading position in this asset class, which brings interesting risk-return characteristics and diversification to the overall portfolio of PFZW.
In the CRS strategy, PGGM provides credit protection and thus shares part of the credit risk in the banks’ portfolio of loans, which further allows banks to optimise their credit exposures and capital needs. PGGM has a strong focus on risk sharing and alignment, not merely on risk transfer. PGGM has a philosophy of risk sharing in the underwriting capabilities of its partners and establishing long-term relationships. CRS transactions are described in more detail in ‘What is CRS’ section of this website.
Dedicated CRS professionals
Successfully managing the CRS mandate requires a diverse set of skills and knowledge across various domains such as credit risk, modelling, law and regulation, macroeconomics, research and sustainability. This is reflected in the diverse backgrounds of the team, ranging from Asset Management, Banking, Risk Modelling, Credit Structuring to Law, Engineering, Physics and Quantitative Analytics. With an average work experience of 12 years, the team has a great mix of junior professionals and experienced seniors, who contribute to the CRS market not only via high-quality transactions, but also as consultants and speakers at various industry events and regulatory discussions. Many of our colleagues are recognised for their knowledge and experience by their peers, regulators, as well as by the press.
Being a diverse team with over 8 different nationalities and speaking more than 10 distinct languages, the team has a sound understanding of different geopolitical trends, cultures, and customs. Clear assets such as the CRS mandate cover investments referencing loans all across the globe, requiring knowledge about local risks, business structures, regulation, and future developments.
Other PGGM teams
In managing the CRS mandate, the team is supported by various functions within PGGM:
- The Risk Analysis (“RA”) team, which is situated under the Chief Risk Officer (“CRO”) of PGGM Asset Management, provides a second line of defence function on the due diligence and analysis by the front office CRS deal team. The RA team reviews and provides an independent report for each investment proposal of the CRS team.
- The Operational Due Diligence (“ODD”) team, which is also part of the Risk department, analyses all material operational aspects of transactions, such as the processes and IT tooling for the selection and replenishment mechanism and identifying, claiming and verifying credit events, as well as the staffing of the relevant functions. This includes the role of the verification agent. The ODD focus is complementary to the review of the IRA team.
- Both the RA and the ODD team have the ability to escalate a proposal to a higher approval forum, in which the CRO has a veto right.
- Finally, the deal team is supported in each transaction by several other departments within PGGM, such as the Tax & Legal department, Compliance, and various back-office functions.
Interested in joining? Please find vacancies here.
Questions?
For questions please, contact Mascha Canio.
