Toni Moss establishes EuroCatalyst, which quickly becomes a clearinghouse for European mortgage market information, providing private research and advisory services for cross-border and new market entrants.  The company addresses the growing need for  more comprehensive marketing and communications services within the European mortgage and housing finance industries, taking into account the potential for more substantial cross-border transactions with in the newly emerged currency and the “single market” for financial services of the European Union.

EuroCatalyst creates momentum for a single communication platform in the markets by criss-crossing the European continent with a road show that brings  together Toni’s personal network, extensive knowledge, and understanding of all of the individual markets that make up “Europe.” The dialogue moves from a national to a  pan-European basis, and Toni is identified as “the tipping point” for  changing the industry.

EuroCatalyst launches a single event that brings together the full value chain and entire funding spectrum and creates a pan-European community for housing finance integrating all of its players and stakeholders on a level playing field based on idea that “community precedes commerce.”

EuroCatalyst creates national market road-shows throughout the year to promote the annual event, raising the caliber of the dialogue and debate while maintaining its  independence and neutrality. We expanded the content, redefined the context and eliminated the politics.

EuroCatalyst enhances specific sectors of the value chain by creating a new event paradigm (the IN FOCUS series), which focuses on diversifying the investor base in regional markets for specific asset classes. In 2004, we hold our first IN FOCUS event in Frankfurt, Germany  (the home of the Pfandbrief), as a marketing mandate on behalf of the issuers of  Nordic covered bonds.

After the continued success of its EuroCatalyst event, EuroCatalyst launches a second, specialized event, EuropeServicing, to address the growing need for better mortgage servicing, processing, and administrative processes for a European market that had now, for better or worse, fully embraced mortgage-backed securities alongside covered bonds. EuropeServicing 2005 is the first European event to bring together lenders, intermediaries, investors, servicers, technology providers, law firms, structures, arrangers, asset managers, and credit agencies to discuss servicing in an open, public forum. One of the main advertisements for the event  included the phrase, “Sure, Europe has witnessed unprecedented growth in mortgage lending over the past 5 years. But portfolios are seasoning and operational losses can no longer be offset against rising house prices. Where will you run to maximize your growth and minimize your risk?”

Also, in 2005, EuroCatalyst brought doom and gloom to certain sectors of the market by discussing, rather loudly on stage at EC2005, fears that those seasoned portfolios of risky lending, combined with high interest rates, were about to hit the fan.

31 May-1 June 2006: EuropeServicing 2006 marks the second year of the EuropeServicing event. The two-day gathering takes place at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and reflects its venue by organizing each session around a film title and clip. The final session of the event, “ ’Crash’: When High Street meets Wall Street in The City, which way do you turn?” continues the dialogue from the controversial session that closed the event the previous year, “Fighting in the food chain and survival of the fittest”.

In October, EuroCatalyst returns to Madrid for the final installment of the EuroCatalyst series with an invitation-only, closed-door discussion on a variety of topics including the sub-prime meltdown and the world of shadow banking. The event opens with a special keynote presentation by Pat Butler, Head of European Financial Practices for McKinsey & Co., titled “From the subprime to the ridiculous”; the entire day scrutinizes lending practices on a global basis with the intention to uncover what went wrong, ask who — if anyone — is to blame for the market crisis, and finally, how to re-position the markets.

More than 200 people participate in the third EuropeServicing event in London in 2008. A “Who’s Who” of the global mortgage industry, the audience includes lenders from Spain, the UK, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and France, packagers from the UK, commercial and residential servicers from the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain and Belgium, investors from the UK, the Netherlands and the United States, trustees from the UK, analysts from the top ratings agencies, and lawyers and intermediaries from across Europe.
The program covers a myriad of issues affecting both commercial and residential mortgage servicing in Europe, culminating in the hugely popular “Blow-Up” session, which debates the purchase and servicing of distressed assets in Europe. The entire event is themed, yet again, around movies, and is titled, “ ’Vertigo’: Mortgage servicing, processing and administration in a world off-balance.”

Keeping our eye on the most significant developments that allow us to make a meaningful difference, in 2009 EuroCatalyst principals relocates to the United States, establishing a project office in Austin, Texas, while maintaining its presence in Europe. We merge our annual EuroCatalyst and EuropeServicing events into a single event called Distressed Servicing 2009/EuroCatalyst 2009 Live: from Austin, which we host with the support of industry news publisher HousingWire.