Industry Efforts to Improve Investor Confidence in Securitisation

Tuesday, 28th April, 2009

Registration starts at 15:30 (GMT)
16:00 - 18:00 (GMT)

Mayer Brown International LLP, 201 Bishopsgate, EC2M 3AF, London (MAP)

Panelists:

• Isabel von Köppen-Mertes, Head of Financial Market and Collateral Section, ECB
• Guido Bichisao, Head of Financial Engineering and Advisory Services, EIB
• Elana Hahn, Partner, Mayer Brown International LLP
• Stephen Hynes, Head of Securitisation, Group Treasury, The Royal Bank of Scotland
• Tom Deutsch, Deputy Executive Director, ASF
• Marco Angheben, Director, ESF

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The failure or near-failure of a number of financial institutions and the unprecedented intervention by governments and central banks in the financial markets, including direct investment in major financial institutions, highlight the importance of securitisation as a necessary tool to help in mitigating the current economic crisis, and creating a more robust financial framework. Initially triggered by losses in the subprime RMBS market, the credit freeze has become more widespread and deep, resulting in a global economic slowdown.

These developments underscore the need for continued global efforts by market participants to enact fundamental changes to the securitisation process to improve transparency to investors and credit rating agencies, increase the level and quality of due diligence performed on those assets and strengthen the governance process for identifying and removing poorly performing assets from securitisations. Through the leadership of members of the American Securitization Forum (ASF) and the European Securitisation Forum (ESF), the global securitisation industry has been proactive in tackling the global credit and liquidity crisis and seeking the necessary improvements to the securitisation process.

The European Securitisation Forum (ESF) has also been actively engaged in the development of initiatives aimed at providing additional market transparency, and has released ESF Principles on 19 February 2009, which establish guidelines for issuers of European RMBS. ESF Principles are an important component of the industry’s initiatives to increase transparency in the securitisation market as recommended by ECOFIN, European Commission, Financial Stability Forum, IOSCO. Twelve major RMBS issuers have endorsed the ESF Principles for seventeen programmes from the UK and the Netherlands and others are currently in active discussions.

ASF and ESF are holding their first joint Sunset Seminar of 2009, which has been structured as a presentation and open discussion forum on two of the major private sector responses to address the current market dislocations.  Industry experts will provide a detailed discussion of ASF Project RESTART and the ESF Principles, while offering their expertise on topics related to these initiatives, including:

• An overview of the progress and implementation timelines associated with these projects;
• Improving disclosure and transparency through standardisation of data, definitions, calculation methodologies and reduced normalisation costs;
• Boosting investor confidence in mortgage and asset-backed securities and enabling investors to distinguish pools of high quality loans from lesser quality pools;
• Development of uniform national standards for secondary market definitions of key reporting items, such as “full documentation” loan;
• Methods to address higher rates of fraud in new originations and in modifying loans;
• Development of a set of model representations and warranties and pooling and servicing provisions;
• Compliance with existing laws and upcoming regulations;
• Next steps for ASF and ESF in relation to these initiatives, and addressing transparency issues associated with other asset classes.

Please click here to register. Complimentary registration is available for regulators, and for American Securitization Forum (ASF), European Securitisation Forum (ESF), Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) members.Please contact Michala Houlihan for more information.

In-person attendance is also available in New York, at 360 Madison Avenue. Please contact Wendy Zuluaga for additional information.

Online Access

For participants who are not able to attend in person, the seminar is offered online via webinar during the event and will also be available afterward. You will be able to listen to the seminar, view the accompanying PowerPoint presentations, and access the speaker bios, handouts and presentation materials online in real time, and also afterward at any time during the next 18 months. You may also choose to download a podcast of the event and save the MP3 file. You MUST register for the seminar in order to receive the webinar log-in link and password by email prior to the seminar.

Professional Education Development Points

Individuals who attend this seminar in person in London are eligible to earn Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points.Please contact Michala Houlihan for more information. Only those who attend in person in London may receive credit.