Risk South Africa

Didier joined Murex 16 years ago. He spent 7 years as an Interest Rates Derivatives (IRD) consultant, working with numerous European and international financial institutions, and developing his interest and expertise in this field.

He then joined the product development division and led the IRD practice until 2014. In this role, he oversaw the transformation of the rates solutions following the financial crisis, introducing new features for multi-curves, clearing, OIS discounting and negative rates management in the MX.3 platform. Didier has been in charge of the evolution of Murex’s rates and credit solutions, as well as curve and volatility analytics, since 2016.

In 2018, he was appointed co-head of the Murex IBOR discontinuation taskforce, responsible for the design and development of the Murex IBOR discontinuation solution. In 2021, he started heading the Trading and Financial Engineering domain at Murex, driving evolution and development of Murex solutions in these areas, across all asset classes.

Didier is a computer science and financial mathematics engineering graduate from the National School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics (Ensimag) in Grenoble, France. He is also a lecturer in Financial Mathematics in Le Mans Université, France.

Obeid lectures on both the MCom in Risk Management of Financial Markets and the MPhil in Mathematical Finance degrees, which are offered by AIFMRM at the University of Cape Town. Currently, he is also the convenor of the MCom degree. Prior to this, he was employed on a full-time basis within the financial sector, and gained extensive exposure to banking, asset management, insurance, and sell-side broking. Obeid's roles evolved from quantitative analyst to head of quantitative research within the investment and stockbroking industries, and he then moved on to become senior risk manager at one of South Africa’s largest banks. His research focuses on quantitative finance and risk management with a particular focus on interest rate modelling at present. Accordingly, last year he was invited to contribute to the South African Reserve Bank’s Market Practitioners Group which is mandated to provide technical guidance on reference rate reform in South Africa.

Paul is responsible for funding and liquidity management for SBSA including, accessing local and international loan and capital markets, long and short-term funding, and intraday liquidity and cash management. He manages treasury portfolio and risk management functions. In addition, Paul manages the Money Markets Franchise business in CIB including client deposits and short-term market-based funding requirements across corporate, public sector and non-bank financial institutions. Paul represents Standard Bank at various industry forums focused on market development. Paul is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)) and has a completed a B. Bus Sci (Hons) qualification from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Ashley is a Director and Head of the RiskLab at Riskworx, South Africa’s leading financial engineering focussed consultancy. He has 20 years experience consulting in the areas of quantitative finance and risk management with a particular focus on capital markets. He has played a meaningful role in risk and regulatory compliance at all of South Africa’s top-tier banks, as well as several of the country’s largest non-bank financial institutions.

Ivan Ruscic works in the Treasury for FirstRand Bank focusing on liquidity strategy, HQLA optimization and transfer pricing.  With over 20 years’ experience in market risk, financial engineering, and liquidity risk, his passion is measuring, mitigating, and pricing for risks.  He is extensively involved in the group’s LIBOR transition and is currently participating in the MPG sub-workstreams focusing on recommendations for the development of derivative, bond and loan markets referencing ZARONIA.

Ulrich leads the Financial Risk Management practise for KPMG in South Africa. He has more than 15 years of experience in the field of quantitative financial risk management modelling with a focus on the design, development and implementation of credit risk models, both for regulatory and business purposes.

Prior to joining KPMG South Africa, he worked for the Financial Risk Management department of KPMG Belgium and KPMG Italy and also has extensive experience assisting some of the largest French and German financial institutions.

Pierre is a financial professional with 12 years of international experience, in supporting and controlling the Global Market businesses of a top tier international bank. He has a Quantitative and modelling background, strong knowledge of Valuation, Risk (credit, market, operational), Capital management and overall Regulatory landscape.

Alex is the Chief Risk Officer at JSE Clear, the central clearing counterparty (CCP) for exchange-traded derivatives in South Africa.  He is also responsible for financial risk management in the JSE’s cash equity and bond markets.  Alex joined the JSE in 2006 and has over 20 years of experience in the capital markets industry in various roles including strategic project execution, operations and financial and enterprise risk management. 

Prior to his tenure at the JSE, Alex gained experience with Merrill Lynch South Africa and Commerzbank in London and Frankfurt.  

Alex’s qualifications include a BSc Engineering degree, Diploma in Datametrics and an MBA from Wits Business School.”

Diane R. Maurice is a financial services advisor in Africa with a focus on technology and process improvements. Her former three-year residency position was at the Central Bank of Tunisia with long term engagements with the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance in Madagascar. Capacity building with the Central Bank of Moldova and the Central Bank of Afghanistan focused on market, operational and credit risk. After fifteen years as an asset manager and banker, she began her central banking experience at the Federal Reserve of New York and San Francisco as an operational and technology risk specialist.

Ms. Maurice also serves in advisory capacity in risk management, a Fintech Company serving Central Banks implementing central bank digital currency (CBDC), regulatory sandbox platforms and other blockchain technologies engaged with six Central Banks in Africa and the Caribbean. Special interests include the use of telecommunications to promote financial inclusion as a complement to other financial market infrastructure including traditional banking.

Ms. Maurice is a frequent speaker and presenter on technical and training topics related to CBDC and other innovation topics. During her 35-year career in IT Governance , Diane served in debt. asset management,  and risk management roles at European and American investment and commercial banks including Fortis, ABN Amro Bank, State Street Global Advisors, Morgan Stanley, and TD Securities. Rating agency investment management experience includes both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors. Her focus as a strategic risk professional includes a broad range of technology and non-technology related risks. 

In 2021 her third compendium on risk management issues was published: Reg Tech Sup Tech Innovation and Beyond (2021) – featuring over 30 risk professionals and thought leaders in Regulatory Technology. A fourth compendium on the use of  Blockchain in financial services is in process.

Note: Any views or opinions represent Ms. Maurice’s perspectives and the not views of any past or current government entity.