Before CLOs Scaled: A Long Path from Ontario to the Early Trading Desk (Dave Trepanier, Bank of America)

Dave Trepanier’s path into structured credit was anything but conventional. Growing up on a French-Canadian farm in rural Ontario, he learned grit, teamwork, and how to make decisions amid uncertainty —skills that would later prove invaluable in the early days of the CLO market. Now Global Head of GCSS-Structured Products in FICC Trading at Bank of America, Dave leads one of the industry’s leading CLO and CDO trading franchises while navigating every major modern credit cycle.

In this episode, Dave reflects on his journey from studying political science and considering law school to discovering financial engineering, options markets in Chicago, and ultimately relocating to Charlotte—where CLOs were still modeled by hand in Excel off faxed trustee reports. We discuss what those early, highly-manual workflows taught him about risk, liquidity, and market structure, and how the CLO market evolved through the telecom downturn and the GFC, and why electronification, data, and systematic strategies may shape the next chapter of credit markets.

Listen to the full episode here.

About Dave:

DAVID J. TREPANIER is the Global Head of GCSS-Structured Products in FICC Trading. In this role, David is responsible for the CLO New Issue and CLO/CDO Secondary Trading businesses as well as the Credit Asset Financing business. David joined the bank in 2002 as an Associate in the CDO Structuring group. In 2004, David helped to form the CDO/CLO Secondary Trading desk for Banc of America Securities. David ran the CDO/CLO Trading desk until 2015 when he was promoted to lead the GCSS-Structured Products Group globally. 

David holds a Bachelor of Computer Science and a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Economics from The University of Windsor, Canada. David also holds an MSc in Financial Engineering and an MSc in Industrial and Operations Engineering from The University of Michigan. David is a CFA charter holder.