ASIFMA Annual Conference 2025
17 February 2025, Hong Kong
Allison Parent (2019 Annual)
Executive Director
Global Financial Markets Association
Allison Parent is the Executive Director for the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA). She oversees the development and execution of GFMA’s priorities, helping to provide a collective voice on behalf of global financial institutions to support global capital markets and broader economic growth.
Prior to joining GFMA June 2017, Allison was the Head of Global Regulatory Policy at Barclays. In this role, she led on the bank’s advocacy, impact analysis and execution around post-crisis regulatory law changes, such as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and Basel capital and liquidity reforms. Allison has regularly appeared before, and advised, finance ministers, securities authorities, central bank governors, lawmakers in Asia, US and Europe on the law and supervisory practices governing financial markets. Allison joined Barclays in its Washington DC office before moving to London.
2013 to 2015 Allison was Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel to the Bank of England. She led the Markets Directorate’s policy team on evaluating the impact of regulations on market structure and product offerings. In this role, she supported the efforts on the U.K. Fair and Effective Markets Review, the Bank of England’s response to the Capital Markets Union consultation, participated on Committee for Global Financial System working group, as well as serving as advisor on legal developments in the U.S. impacting global capital markets. Between 2005-2011 Allison served as General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget responsible for advising on U.S. fiscal matters before Congress. During this period she was also an advisor on securities and banking matters to U.S. Senator Judd Gregg and the Republican caucus during the financial crisis, contributing to the development and passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (TARP). Allison subsequently drafted and negotiated significant provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act and was budget counsel to The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
Allison was raised in San Antonio, Texas and Seattle, Washington. She holds a Juris Doctorate from the South Texas College of Law and Bachelor of Business Administration from the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas. She is licensed to practice law in the state of Texas. She has lived and worked, or studied, in Washington D.C., London, Texas, and Florence, Italy.
