In 2006, EUROCATALYST was not held due to my immediate concern that mortgage markets were about to blow up. I thought that all of our efforts and industry wide attention should be focused on servicing in anticipation of the collapse. This year, we placed ads in European industry publications with tongue-in-cheek advertising that said, “Who Says Servicing Isn’t Sexy?”

EUROPESERVICING 2006 was held at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in London. In honor of the venue, all sessions were themed (and highly editorialized) with movie titles, and began with clips from famous films that could easily be interpreted to each session. The primary focus of the event was on default, or distressed servicing, which was a relatively unknown skill set and practice in Europe. In the session “Bambi Meets Godzilla” we addressed the “Americanization” of European real estate markets head on. “Catch-22” discussed the servicers’ dilemma of high investor expectations with little operational budgets to work with. In the session description, I wrote, “In the U.S., virtually every industry conference features a session dedicated to beating up the services. In Europe, servicers can’t even get enough attention to be arrested.” The final session, “Crash: When High Street meets Wall Street in The City, which way do you turn?” was the most obvious editorial of all, previewing events the following year that would permanently alter the global economy.

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