ISLA Americas U.S. Treasury Clearing Briefing 2026

Ralph Axel is a Director and U.S. Rates Strategist at BofA Global Research. Axel, who joined the firm in June 2010, is a specialist in government and agency funding markets with special interest in swaps and futures. He focuses on drivers of interest rates and how changes in rates impact our economy. Research publications include the Global Rates Weekly, Liquid Insight and World at a Glance. He was a #1 ranked analyst in the 2021-25 Institutional Investor /Extel Surveys.

Previously, Axel was a rates strategist at Deutsche Bank Securities, where he specialized in European agency bonds. Before that, he was as proprietary bond trader at Lehman Brothers in NYC.

Axel received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Illinois after his bachelor’s in mathematics from UMass.

Noah Baer is a Director and Senior Counsel in BlackRock’s Legal & Compliance Department in New York, having joined BlackRock in 2025.  He is the primary lawyer overseeing the documentation effort and regulatory analysis supporting U.S. Treasury Clearing for BlackRock.  He is also responsible for legal coverage relating to trading activities for OTC and cleared derivatives, futures, and bilateral repo.  Prior to BlackRock, Noah was legal counsel at Deutsche Bank from 2016 to 2025 and an associate at Allen & Overy from 2010 to 2016.

Jacqueline Chezar serves as Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel at DTCC. Within this role, she is responsible for managing the legal team that supports two of DTCC’s SEC-registered and Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)-designated clearing agencies: National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) and Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC). Most recently, Jacqueline and her team have provided legal guidance and support across a number of key industry initiatives, including the US move to T+1 and the development of FICC’s rulemaking to comply with the expanded US Treasury Clearing mandate.

With over 15 years of experience in financial services, Jacqueline started her career  at a large international law firm before joining DTCC. She began her career at DTCC supporting the equities clearing business at NSCC, providing legal support to significant initiatives including the US move to a T+2 settlement cycle. Jacqueline also led the development of clearing agency recovery and wind-down plans as well as clearing agency compliance programs with the Covered Clearing Agency Standards and Regulation SCI across subsidiaries. In 2022, Jacqueline became Managing Director at DTCC, with responsibility for legal oversight of both NSCC and FICC.

Jacqueline received her B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Miami University and her J.D. degree from the University of Illinois College of Law, spending a semester studying European Union and international public law at KU Leuven.

Chris is the Head of NA Sovereign Financing Trading within the Fixed Income Financing business at J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. He manages a team that is responsible for market-making and inventory and risk management in the Treasury repo market.

Brett Davis, CFA, Director, is Head of the North American Repo Trading Team within Blackrock Global Markets. Ms. Davis is responsible for the USD, CAD, MXN financing needs for Blackrock Funds, which includes Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds and Separately Managed Accounts. Previously, Brett was a member of BlackRock’s Cash Management Group. She was a Portfolio Manager responsible for managing active short-term fixed income portfolios for corporate, financial and insurance clients. She was also responsible for managing the active Ultra Short Bond Mutual Fund and ETF. 

Spanning almost 25-years on the sell-side, in the public sector, and on the buy-side, John brings passion and detailed expertise to various facets of the financial system plumbing.  John’s role varied from back-to-front offices in money market trading and sales at primary dealers, trader/subject matter expert analyst work at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during and after the Great Financial Crisis, to senior hedge fund financing and treasury positions at large hedge funds over the past 12-years. 

In his current role at Garda, John leads the Team that funds the Firm’s US Treasury, Canadian Government, agency MBS, and USD-denominated credit and EM portfolios.   

His focus is ensuring resolute term financing of the 21-year old Firm’s balance sheet, providing thought leadership to the Investment Team and senior management on emerging themes in secured funding and financial system infrastructure, and helping nurture the Firm’s culture so that Garda’s core values fuel performance.  

John resides in Northern New Jersey with his wife, three sons, and dog. When not emersed in spreadsheets, and/or reading the latest clearing mandate proposals, he enjoys playing hockey, golf, and guitar. 

Helen Fermor is Chief Operating Officer of ICE Clear U.S., a wholly owned clearinghouse of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE). With 20 years of experience in derivatives markets and financial infrastructure, Helen oversees the daily operations of the CFTC-recognized clearinghouse, which supports futures and options across agriculture, equity, forex, and interest rate products. Prior to her current role, Helen held senior leadership positions at ICE Clear Credit and ICE Clear Europe, where she managed credit default swap clearing operations. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham, England.

Elizabeth L. Fitzgerald is an Assistant Director in the Office of Clearance and Settlement in the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets.  In her role, Ms. Fitzgerald helps oversee the Commission’s supervisory program for registered clearing agencies, particularly those operating in the equity and fixed income markets.  Prior to joining the Commission in 2011, Ms. Fitzgerald was a litigator in private practice in Washington, D.C., focusing on securities enforcement and litigation matters.  Ms. Fitzgerald received a J.D from The George Washington University Law School and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Brad Fryer is responsible for leading the Americas region for J.P. Morgan’s Agency Securities Finance team.  Brad started his career with JPM’s ASF business and has had roles within the Operations, Product and Trading teams.  Brad has also worked at Morgan Stanley, leading the Firm Funding Sales team, prior to rejoining JPM in 2024 to take on his current role.  Brad is a graduate of Penn State University. 

Fran joined ISLA Americas in 2024 as Chief Executive and Head of Business, leading advocacy efforts with policymakers and regulators while collaborating with the board and ISLA EMEA on the Association’s objectives to ensure the needs and requirements of member firms across the Americas are met.

Prior to joining ISLA Americas, Fran spent 22 years at the Risk Management Association (RMA), with the last 16 focused on Capital Markets Risk and Securities Lending. His role encompassed securities lending, regulatory outreach, and various risk management functions, including funding, traded market risk, liquidity, counterparty risk, collateral management, model risk, and country risk.

Fran completed the University of Pennsylvania’s RMA/Wharton Advanced Risk Management Program as well as receiving his Master of Business Administration in Finance in addition to International Business from Philadelphia University, and has a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Pennsylvania State University.

Joseph Gillingwater is a Senior Vice President and Global Head of Fixed Income Securities Finance Trading at Northern Trust Capital Markets.

Based in London, he joined Northern Trust in 2016, and is responsible for the global trading strategy, regulatory capital optimization, and distribution of bonds within the Agency Lending programme. Additionally, Joseph has responsibility for the management of repurchase agreement (repo) trading, including Northern Trust’s FICC sponsored repo capabilities.

Previously, Joseph was a Senior Portfolio Manager at State Street Global Advisors where he was responsible for the management of securities lending investments and short-term fixed income portfolios.

Brandon M. Hammer is a partner at Cleary Gottlieb. His practice focuses on a broad range of financial regulatory, market infrastructure, bankruptcy, and creditors’ rights issues. He has assisted buy- and sell-side clients, as well as market utilities, on complex and novel issues arising from a changing technological landscape. Brandon’s clients include U.S. and non-U.S. financial institutions, clearinghouses, sovereigns, market disruptors and end users. He is frequently counsel to leading financial market trade associations and ad hoc coalitions on major industry initiatives and industry-standard opinions. 

Sue Hill is head of the Government Liquidity Group and is responsible for portfolio management and research of government liquidity portfolios. She has 35 years of investment experience. Before joining Federated Hermes’ investment research department in 1990, Sue worked as a research assistant at the US Treasury Department.

She is the current leader of the Federated Hermes Women in Investing employee resource group and a current board and fi nance committee member of the CCAC Educational Foundation.

Sue earned her bachelor’s degree from University of Virginia and master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a CFA® charter holder and a current member and former president of the CFA® Society of Pittsburgh.

Laura Klimpel serves as Managing Director and Head of DTCC’s Fixed Income and Financing Solutions within the firm’s Clearing & Securities Services businesses. In her role, Laura oversees the firm’s Treasury, Mortgage-Backed Securities and Secured Funding products and services.

Prior to her current role, Laura has held various business and legal positions within the DTCC complex, including acting as General Counsel for New York Portfolio Clearing, LLC (NYPC). Before that, Laura spent three years at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, focusing primarily on US commodities and derivatives regulation.

Laura received her B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from Truman State University in 1999 and her J.D. degree, cum laude, from Cornell University in 2007. She is a member of the New York Bar. Laura is also a member of the Treasury Market Practices Group (TPMG).

Larry is a Managing Director and Senior Counsel in the Legal Division of Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC. He heads the Prime Services and Securities Finance Legal team within Global Banking & Markets (GBM) Legal in the Americas. He advises on legal and regulatory issues for the Prime Services business in the Americas, as well as the firm’s Repo businesses in the Americas.  

Brendan is a Managing Director at Ernst & Young LLP in the Financial Services Consulting practice. He supports sell-side and buy-side firms, exchanges, and clearinghouses with product design, regulatory compliance implementation, risk management, regulatory reporting, cash management, and large-scale program management. Brendan leads EY’s U.S. Treasury Clearing services.

Ms. Ringelheim is a Managing Director in the Markets Division at Citigroup. She is Global Head of Prudential, Infrastructure, and Market Structure (PIMS) for the Global Finance Desk.  As a senior member of the Global Finance Desk, she works closely with both internal partners and clients on driving adaptation to the quickly evolving market structure changes in the Global Fixed Income Financing Markets.  Her group is responsible for integrating changing regulations and business practices with the development of infrastructure and technology.  PIMS has a strong client focus, owning conversations with clients on how to support their long-term needs in the changing regulatory environment.

Ms. Ringelheim joined the firm (legacy Salomon Brothers) in 1988.  She received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from The Stern School of Business at New York University.

Barrie is a member BNY Mellon Global Securities Client Advisory Council and DTCC’s FICC Advisory Council.  She also sits on the Advisory Board of The New York Landmarks Conservancy and is a past President of the Historic Properties Fund.

She resides in New York City with her husband and son.

Greg Sirochinsky is a Managing Director and co-Heads the Short Duration Sales desk within the Global Markets division of Deutsche Bank.  He leads the US repo coverage team providing client financing to hedge funds, asset managers, and securities lenders in US Treasuries, MBS, corporate bonds, and securitized products across the credit and liquidity spectrum along.  He earned an undergraduate degree from the New York University Stern School of Business in 2003 and became a CFA charter holder in 2010.

Robert Taylor serves as the Senior Director, Clearing Policy & Market Structure at CME Group.  He has guided CME Group efforts to navigate changes in fixed income markets, impacts of banking capital requirements on derivatives, and currently serves as the head of the CME Clearing regulatory reporting team.  Mr. Taylor has also led the successful regulatory approval efforts for major CME Clearing initiatives, including the CME-FICC Enhanced Cross-Margining program, approved and launched in January 2024.  Mr. Taylor has enjoyed a 20-year history in capital markets, working initially across fixed income and securitization markets at Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Bank, and presently in derivatives markets at CME Group.

Mr. Toomey heads SIFMA’s capital market practice. The Capital Markets Group focuses on the complete breadth of both business and regulatory issues facing SIFMA members in the capital markets. The group covers municipal finance, rates/funding, securitization, derivatives, corporate debt, equities, listed options, and primary markets. In addition, Mr. Toomey has been the principal staff person responding to policy proposals on reforms to the US Treasury market as well as those impacting the Prime Brokerage/Securities Lending dealer community.

Prior to joining SIFMA’s predecessor, the Bond Market Association, in September 2004, Mr. Toomey served from 1995 as Counsel at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, principally supporting the NY Fed’s Markets Group in connection with US Treasury securities activities, open market operations, primary dealer relationships, and foreign exchange. Immediately prior to joining the NY Fed, Mr. Toomey was a Special Counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Division of Corporation Finance. Prior to the SEC, he was an Associate at the law firm of Reid & Priest.

Nehal is Head of Securities Finance at Bank of New York within the Markets Division. Securities Finance includes Agency Securities Lending program, Prime Services and the Principal related activities including FICC’s Cleared Repo, Secured Loan Portfolio and the prime brokerage proxy Borrow+ which facilitates alternative managers borrowing securities.  Nehal has global responsibilities for the agency and principal businesses and provides strategic direction for securities lending functions including trading, cash collateral investment, product and business development.

Prior to joining BNY in 2023, Nehal spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs in New York and London in a range of roles, including most recently co-heading Global Cross Asset Financing within Global Markets and Banking. In this role she partnered with Fixed Income, Equities, Prime Brokerage and Corporate Treasury to originate innovative solutions for liquidity and capital resource optimization for the firm’s liabilities and distributed these solutions to a breadth of institutional clients. During her tenure at the firm, she also had responsibilities in equity structuring and started her career in foreign exchange trading.

Nehal holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Mathematics from Imperial College London. Nehal chairs the board of trustees for Stevens Cooperative School, New Jersey.

Nate Wuerffel is the Head of Product for the Global Collateral Platform and Head of Market Structure at BNY.  In this capacity, he is responsible for the development of products and services for BNY’s global collateral platform, which supports liquidity and financing for more than $6T in assets, including U.S. Triparty repo.  He is also responsible for BNY’s continued leadership in all aspects of market structure, including public-private efforts to improve financial market resiliency, navigating market structure changes especially in the U.S. Treasury market.

Mr. Wuerffel was previously the head of Domestic Markets at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where he was responsible for carrying out monetary policy trading operations in the Treasury, agency MBS and money markets, including the design and implementation of a range of facilities and trading operations such as quantitative easing and tightening programs, the Standing Repo Facility and other balance sheet actions aimed at fostering U.S. economic growth and financial market functioning.

Mr. Wuerffel has led a variety of efforts across the public and private sectors to strengthen the U.S. Treasury market.  He was responsible for developing the annual Inter-Agency conference on the Treasury market hosted by the NY Fed, and oversaw the NY Fed’s Treasury Market Practices Group (TMPG).  Mr. Wuerffel led the New York Fed’s efforts to support the transition away from USD LIBOR and was responsible for the Alternative Reference Rate Committee (ARRC).  His public remarks cover topics such as government securities market liquidity and structure, Treasury market resiliency, central clearing and the LIBOR transition.  He currently sits on the Advisory Council for the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation and the Volatility and Risk Institute Advisory Board of New York University Stern School of Business.

Mr. Wuerffel holds a bachelor’s degree from Valparaiso University and a master’s degree from University of Chicago.