By 2008, servicing was finally sexy. While no one created any calendars of bare-chested servicing executives, services were now the first responders on the front lines of an unprecedented economic firestorm. In our event advertising, we re-purposed the EUROPESERVICING 2005 ad, “Do I Really Need to Care About Mortgage Servicing?” by scratching out the title quote and handwriting, “We know the answer to that one now!!!!”

Held at the British Film Institute, once again all sessions were themed to films and the event was aptly titled “VERTIGO: Servicing in a World Off-Balance”. Notably, the event was formally supported by the CFA Society of the UK, which encompassed the largest group of institutional investors in the UK.

We opened with the session, “To Kill a Mockingbird“, referencing racial injustice (minorities were disproportionately hit by the mortgage market implosion) and the destruction of innocence.

McKinsey Director Charles Roxburgh incorporated the theme in his presentation, “Subprime: Canary in a Coal Mine“, which warned of global economic repercussions that had only just begun. (Heark! A song comes to mind!) The following session, “Running With Scissors,” referred to the breakdown of counterparty boundaries and trust in structured finance and finally supported my incessant and longstanding insistence on why servicers should function as the investors’ front office.

On a fun note, all sessions featured the original film posters that coincided with session titles, with speakers Photoshopped into the posters. In the session “Best in Show”, which was about the correlation between servicing and loan performance, we featured Ingrid Beckles, who at the time was the head of servicing and asset management at Freddie Mac. It was refreshing to feature a woman onstage, and even more rare to feature a woman who was also a minority. For those who don’t know her, Ingrid Beckles is an extremely formidable presence. Not knowing her well myself at the time, while I was thrilled to have someone of her stature speaking at the event I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated by her. For those unfamiliar with the film, “Best in Show” is a “mockumentary” about dog shows. After introducing her, when Ingrid took the stage she immediately pointed at the massive screen with her photo superimposed as the handler of one of the dogs in the “Best in Show” poster. As I was walking offstage, Ingrid called me out. “Hey Toni! Why am I the one with the black dog?” Thinking fast, I blamed Shirley.

Given the catastrophe at hand, it had finally hit home. Our last session was “BLOWUP: When Servicing Counts – Whole Loan Sales and Asset Disposition”. EUROPESERVICING 2008 was EUROCATALYST’s last event in Europe. (The following year, the event was held as EUROCATALYST one last time in Austin, Texas, with the theme, DISTRESSED SERVICING.)In a BBC radio interview immediately following the event, I was interviewed along with a very well-known chief economist from one of the world’s largest banks. When asked to comment on the unfolding economic catastrophe, we were asked to characterize the situation in one sentence. The economist referred to current events as “the perfect storm” that would ultimately pass. I responded, “It’s economic climate change”.