ENDING THE YEAR IN GOOD SPIRITS; ANOTHER ENTERTAINING EVENT - THE ITFA CHRISTMAS COCKTAIL PARTY - by Lorna Pillow, Head of Communication & Membership, ITFA

Undoubtedly, 2015 was a challenging year for emerging market (EM) currencies, and 2016 is expected to bring some challenges too, albeit many analysts believe that the pace of depreciation will be significantly lower than 2015. The concoction of expectations of a first US rate hike in over 9 years coupled with Chinese GDP failing to meet market expectations as well as oil prices hitting record low which is expected to persist during the first half of 2016, have kept emerging market investors on the side-lines, with volatility expected to persist well into the New Year.

Monday 7th December played host to the ITFA Christmas Cocktail Party that took place at The Roof Garden, Kensington, London. It was a joyous occasion that brought together many ITFA members and friends from all over the world to come and enjoy a little fun, music, and networking.  One of the greatest benefits of our Association, though not the only one, is the ability to establish and re-new contacts and network with fellow colleagues. It was our great pleasure, at this event, to welcome so many of our existing members and friends and we truly hope that you found the cocktail enjoyable. It was evident that the association is really growing as we saw so many new faces at the cocktail. We sincerely enjoyed your great company. We managed to attract a record number this year to the event. Thanks for the support.

I am sure you all agree that the venue chosen was looking spectacular. The Kensington Roof Gardens were inaugurated in May 1938 and was later acknowledged as a place of ‘Specific Historical Interest’ and given a Grade II listing by English Heritage. The space on the 6th floor of the building was later transformed into an amazing events space, restaurant and club.

The evening’s festivities began with welcome drinks which the guests especially enjoyed after attending the insurance committee event held at Liberty Specialty Markets. We would like to thank Liberty Specialty Markets for hosting such an informative session. For more information on this event, please read through the next article.

The partitions to the new rooms were opened after the initial drinks so Sean Edwards could give a short speech summarizing the work that ITFA would do in particular on BAFT and other insurance incentives.

The evening continued with great music and dancing which lasted well into the night. Those attending enjoyed a lovely walk through the mystical gardens. The ITFA Christmas Party was a huge success; an entertaining and exciting way to celebrate the festive season. To view photos of the event, please click here.

On behalf of the ITFA Board, we thank you all for attending our Christmas party. One last word goes out to our members whom we thank for their constant support.  We wish to continue receiving your feedback in order to provide more value to our members, as well as encouraging you to keep your ITFA ambassador hats on, with a view to attracting more institutions to join.

We do hope you have a fun and safe holiday season wherever you are and we look forward to welcoming the New Year, 2016. We would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families all the very best for the festive season and a Prosperous New Year.

As always, we look forward to seeing you at our future events.