Clockwise: Bloomberg’s Stephanie Sparvero; Kroll’s Marcus Morton; Lincoln International’s Larry Levine; and Grant Thornton’s Manish Saxena
The International Valuation Standards Council (IVSC) is pleased to announce the appointment of four new board members to its Financial Instruments Board, the group responsible for drafting and consulting on International Valuation Standards (IVS) for Financial Instruments. The appointments follow an extensive and open recruitment process earlier this year, led by an independent nominations committee.
- Larry Levine is a Managing Director at Lincoln International LLC, based in Chicago. He is a member of the Business Valuation Resource Panel of The Appraisal Foundation and serves on the Standards Board for the Business Valuation Committee of the American Society of Appraisers.
- Marcus Morton is a Managing Director, Valuation Services, at Duff & Phelps, A Kroll Business, based in London. Prior to this he spent nearly 30 years working in investment banks in London and New York across valuations, risk, controls and compliance.
- Manish Saxena is a Partner in Valuation Advisory Services at Grant Thornton, based in Bangalore. He leads the firms Valuation Services Practice for South India. He specialises in the valuation of complex financial instruments and has authored several publications on the subject.
- Stephanie Sparvero is the Global Head of Bloomberg’s Evaluated Pricing Service (BVAL), based in New York. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Stephanie spent over 20 years on the buy- and sell-sides. She worked as a Managing Director at Pretium Partners, and at Barclays as Chief Operating Officer for Securitized Products. Stephanie is a founding member of Bloomberg’s Women in FinTech, a community that she has helped to grow to more than 1,000 members since its inception in 2017.
The new board members will take up their positions in August on an initial three-year term.
The IVSC Financial Instruments Board is Chaired by HSBC’s CFO of Global Banking and Markets, Gavin Francis, and brings together international leaders from valuation, banking and financial regulation to set internationally-agreed, principles-based standards for valuing financial instruments.
The Board was established in 2019 and published the first in a two-part consultation on a new IVS Financial Instruments chapter earlier this year. Part one included standards covering ‘Governance’ and ‘Data’. The second part will address ‘Methods and Models’ and ‘Controls and Reporting’ and is expected to be published in early 2022. The feedback to both consultations will be reflected in an update to the IVS, next year.
“The board is delighted to welcome four highly eminent new members who bring with them vast expertise in the fields of valuation and financial instruments. They join at a pivotal moment in the Board’s short history, with our efforts focused on launching the second part of our consultation on proposed new standards in the early part of next year. I am grateful to all four appointees for their commitment to IVS and their willingness to share expertise and ideas with the Board.” – Gavin Francis, Chair of the IVSC Financial Instruments Board
“Reliable financial instrument valuations enable the efficient allocation of scarce capital resources amongst market participants and form the foundation of our global financial system. The IVSC serves an important role in establishing relevant and reliable valuation standards for financial instruments.” – Larry Levine
“Confidence in valuations underpins confidence in the financial services industry. Investors rely on valuations to be accurate, fair and transparent. This is true now more than ever. I am looking forward to working with my fellow board members on high quality, consistent valuation standards for financial instruments that are key to building that confidence.” – Marcus Morten
“I am delighted to be part of the IVSC Financial Instrument Board. In an increasingly uncertain world, IVSC is playing an important role in providing a consistent and objective valuation framework across different asset classes. Financial Instruments are varied and increasingly complex. The standards developed by IVSC will help to bring confidence to the investors in these instruments. I look forward to being part of this IVSC endeavour and contributing to the best of my capability.” – Manish Saxena
“Pricing transparency and accurate valuations are critical for markets to function properly. I am proud to join the IVSC Financial Instruments Board and support its mission of developing and promoting quality valuation standards to enhance investor confidence and decision making.” – Stephanie Sparvero