IPAF Chair

The IPAF Chair shall be selected among General Member institutions at the Summit Meetings. The Chair shall be responsible for hosting and funding the annual Summit and Conference during its Chairmanship. In addition, the Chair may also host or support other IPAF activities (i.e. training seminars and CC meetings).

IPAF Coordinating Council (CC)

The CC shall be comprised of General Members (general managers or an equivalent level position) and shall meet annually or at the request of one of its members through actual meetings, video/teleconference or by electronic mail). The members of the CC, during the CC meetings, shall:(a) oversee the implementation of agreements arising from the Summit meetings;(b) review agenda of upcoming Summit meetings; and (c) share knowledge or discuss pertinent regional economic issues.

IPAF Support Team

The IPAF Support Team is based at ADB headquarters in Manila. ADB, represented by the Regional Cooperation and Integration Division, has a 3-year mandate to provide secretariat functions to IPAF.

As part of its commitment to IPAF, ADB provided a technical assistance project, entitled, "Technical Assistance for the Establishment of the International Public Asset Management Company Forum". This will support the IPAF Support Team in ADB, whose main role is to assist IPAF in establishing its institutional arrangements for effective coordination among its members, and facilitate and monitor progress in the implementation of IPAF agreements and decisions.

About the Asian Development Bank

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members - 49 from the region. In 2017, ADB operations totaled $32.2 billion, including $11.9 billion in cofinancing.

The IPAF logo symbolizes economic stability and mutual cooperation, as well as a new vision for growth to emphasize IPAF's role as a new beacon of reliable growth in the Asian region. Just as orange is the most visible color in fog and dim light, IPAF will be a lighthouse for economic stability in times of both growth and crisis. The crescent shape inside the logo represents the new horizon for success and cooperation throughout the region as governments and corporations work together to revitalize struggling sectors for a prosperous future.

ABOUT PUBLIC ASSET MANAGEMENT COMPANIES

Q. What are distressed assets or nonperforming Loans?
A. Distressed assets are tangible (e.g. real estate) and intangible (e.g. share, corporate bonds, etc) assets with sharply reduced value resulting from a company's deteriorated risk profile and/or bankruptcy. Meanwhile, nonperforming loans or NPLs are loans which are either in default or close to being default because debtors have not made their scheduled payments for at least 90 days. Institutions holding distressed assets or NPLs in their portfolios may choose to sell them to other investors in order to get rid of bad debts and clean up their balance sheets.

Q. What is an AMC?
A. Asset Management Companies or AMCs have two roles, one related to purely investing and another on corporate finance. In the first role, traditional AMCs invest pooled funds on behalf of clients, providing them with more diversification and investing options that match their financial objectives. In the second role, AMCs assist companies in maintaining their tangible and intangible assets and ensures that they are put to their best use.

Q. What are Public AMCs and how are they different from traditional AMCs?
A. Public AMCs are government owned or controlled corporations specifically mandated to specifically manage distressed assets or NPLs of both public and private institutions.

Q. How do Public AMCs deal with distressed assets or NPLs?
A. Public AMCs are good at converting unproductive inputs to productive ones, by dealing with the distressed assets/loans, or the borrowers, or both. Specifically, Public AMCs directly address the NPL and distressed asset problems by acquiring, managing and disposing of impaired bank assets or corporate debt, thereby rehabilitating these bad assets and loans

ABOUT IPAF

Q. What is IPAF?
A. The International PublicAsset Management Forum or IPAF was founded in May 2013 by six public AMCs in four developing member countries of the Asian Development Bank, to exchange experiences, share best practices, and search for innovative solutions that will address the distressed asset or NPL problem in the Asian region.

Q. What is the purpose of IPAF?
A. The International Public AMC Forum (IPAF) is a platform for public asset management companies (AMCs) and institutions in Asia to share successful strategies and knowledge that will enable them to work collectively in addressing regional economic issues. As AMCs play a critical role in facilitating bank restructuring and asset recovery, IPAF, through mutual cooperation amongst public AMCs, shall strengthen crisis response mechanisms for mitigating financial vulnerability and contagion and systemic risks, and promote a more resilient regional economy.

Q.How does IPAF work?
A. IPAF employs the shared knowledge of its members and expert participants to teach and learn from each other's experiences in dealing with distressed assets and non-performing loans. Specifically, IPAF promotes capacity building among members through the following:

• Annual summit meetings and conferences. To provide a mechanism for knowledge sharing, IPAF conducts annual summit meetings and conferences among its members and public and private sector policy makers and experts. Meetings are also conducted among IPAF members to define strategies and develop concrete action plans.
• Case studies and other research. To provide knowledge products for AMCs and practitioners, IPAF helps produce major research papers and case studies on the successes and failures of public AMCs in the region.
• Training seminars. IPAF conducts training programs aimed at enhancing distressed asset management capacities among public AMCs and other invited participants.
• IPAF website (https://ipafasia.org). IPAF provides members with online access to relevant information, research papers, reference materials, training schedules, and networking data.

Q. How often are IPAF Summit andConferences held?
A. The IPAF Summit and Conference is held once a year.

Q. Who organizes the IPAF Summit andConference?
A. The IPAF Summit and Conference is hosted by IPAF's incumbent Chair in coordination with the IPAF Support Team (ADB)

ABOUT IPAF MEMBERSHIP

Q. Who are the current members of IPAF?
A. IPAF has 16 existing members, eleven of which are General Members while five are Associate Members. IPAF members are from the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, Vietnam and Republic of Kazakhstan. You may read more about each IPAF member at the Members' section.

Q. How can an organization become a Member of IPAF?
A. To be eligible for IPAF membership, applicants must be a public AMC or institution, where a majority of its stake is owned by the government and/or is mandated by the government to manage public and private assets and loans. Further, a consensus vote by the current members will be needed to decide the appropriateness of admission. Please see "Membership" section for more information.

Q.What are the obligations of members?
A. The primary obligations of IPAF members include attending the yearly conferences and coordinating council meetings. Meanwhile, the IPAF Chair, which is selected annually, is required to host the Annual Summit and Conference. However, the hosting duty may be deferred due to internal difficulties or financial constraints.

Q.What are the benefits of being an IPAF member?
A. IPAF members benefit from knowledge shared by experts in the field of distressed asset and/or non-performing loans management through the regular training seminars organized by the Forum. In addition, members have exclusive access to latest investment trends and strategies, as well as, innovative areas for investment through the annual conferences. Finally, member institutions gain international exposure and opportunity to network with other important AMCs and related financial institutions in the Asian region.

Q. What differentiates a generalmember from an associate member?
A. General Members (GMs) must have the capacity to host and fund the annual Summit and Conference and to support training seminars. In addition, GMs are entitled to the following privileges:

• Automatic participation in the annual Summit and Conference, and other IPAF Activities (i.e. Coordination Council, training seminars);
• Membership to the Coordination Council (see Section II of this Guideline); and
• Voting rights, on all key issues, which the members must mutually address.

Associate Members (AMs) are entitled to attend IPAF activities such as annual the summit and conference and training seminars. However, AMs may also apply to become a GM. All they need to do is to submit all necessary requirements to the IPAF Support Team.

ABOUT THE IPAF SUPPORT TEAM

Q.What is the role of the Asian Development Bank in IPAF?
A. ADB and IPAF have a mutually beneficial relationship. Currently, ADB serves as the IPAF Support Team, initially for the first three (3) years. On the other hand, through IPAF, ADB furthers its mission by supporting regional cooperation and participating in a ground breaking vehicle for Asian economic development.

Q.Where is the IPAF Support Team located?
A. For the first three (3) years since the Forum's inception, the IPAF Support Team is located inside the Economic Research and Regional Cooperation Department (ERCD), Asian Development Bank Headquarters in Manila, Philippines.

Q.What does the IPAF Support Team do?
A. The main role of the Support Team is to set up IPAF's knowledge platform, generate knowledge and establish ways to interface with policy makers in the region, and encourage underdeveloped economies without AMC mechanisms to be involved in IPAF. The IPAF Coordinating Council and the IPAF Support Team work closely to draw up a concrete and sustainable blueprint for IPAF and to create a solid foundation for it to achieve self-sustainability as stipulated in the IPAF Charter. In addition, the Support Team provides administrative support to IPAF through the following:

• Coordinate with the relevant IPAF Chair, and in consultation with the CC members, the annual IPAF activities (i.e. annual Summit, CC meetings and training seminars);
• Provide overall administrative support to the IPAF members;
• Maintain the IPAFwebsite; and
• Prepare research papers or priority economic issues.

ABOUT THE IPAF WEBSITE

Q. As a member, how do I access relevant documents on IPAF activities as well as latest economic and financial data?
A. Information and other related documents on various IPAFactivities -such as agenda, speeches and training materials- are available at the IPAF website via the E-Forum. You may also access links to latest economicand financial data and related publications through the News and Data sectionof the website.

Q. Who can access the E-Forum?
A. Currently, only IPAF Member institutions have exclusive access to IPAF materials via the E-Forum.

Q. I would like to have handy information on IPAF and its activities. Where can I get such information from the website?
A. For a brief introduction on IPAF, you may download the IPAF Brochure for free.

Q. I would like to join IPAF's activities. Can I register online?
A. Yes. Invited participants to IPAF's various activities may confirm participation through the website's online registration system.

Contact Us

If your institution is interested in joining IPAF as a General or Associate Member, or would like to participate in IPAF events, please contact the IPAF Team (ADB Headquarters) through:

Ms. Lilibeth C. Perez
Project Coordinator
. lperez.consultant@adb.org