My consultancy work on public debt management is grounded in the established principles of debt management, as outlined in the guidelines produced by the IMF.  Projects are designed and implemented around best practice – yet consistently overlaid with, and compared to, the reality of the real-world public bond markets and private bilateral credit markets arena. Policies and strategies developed without consideration of, and consultation with, market players will be far harder to implement.  My consultancy work brings together the academic background with the practical experience of decades working successfully to bridge the gap between borrowers and investors. 

My work can be focused on enhancing public debt management capacity or targeting a more narrow topic such as developing a domestic government securities market. Debt management traditionally involves interaction with a range of partners, both internal and external to the debt management office (DMO).  My work aids in improving the quality and calibre of debt management strategy development. Equally important is the preparation of an annual borrowing program, which involves a detailed review of funding opportunities. My experience supports widening financing options to broaden an issuer’s range of liquidity providers.  Equally, I have direct experience in successfully designing, structuring and executing LMOs for both sovereigns and supranationals, to better manage refinancing risk.

For issuers without the established “best practice” DMO institutional framework, I have worked to enhance institutional structures to aid DMOs in transitioning to more effective and efficient governance arrangements.  Strengthening institutional organization is often critical to improving capacity and focusing scarce resources on the debt management function.

Critical to this work has been a focus on improving communications between debt management offices and investors, creditors and other stakeholders.  The importance of this key variable in successful strategy implementation was highlighted in a G20 Statement on the need to strengthen transparency of debt management.  I subsequently co-authored a Working Paper for the IMF: Sovereign Investor Relations: from Principles to Practice (IMF, 2020).