Click here to download the 2008 program
More than 200 people participated in the third EuropeServicing event in London in 2008. A “Who’s Who” of the global mortgage industry, the audience included 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.
EuropeServicing 2008 opened by revisiting the closing session of the 2006 EuropeServicing event, ” ‘Crash’: When High Street meets Wall Street in the City, which way do you turn?” Examining the current state of the housing finance industry, the session looked at overall factors that contributed to the credit crunch including mark-to-market triggers placed on investors. Two other notable sessions included global benchmarking, featuring U.S. heavyweight Ingrid Beckles, head of servicing and acquisitions for Freddie Mac, and another focusing on the main public informants for the mortgage industry: the press. The event culminated in the hugely popular “Blow-Up” session, which debated the purchase and servicing of distressed assets in Europe.
EuropeServicing brought together investors, investment banks, rating agencies, service providers, technology vendors, outsourcing specialists, regulators and servicers themselves to discuss all aspects of the servicing sector as the main show, rather than just as a sideshow.
It provided the market with an independent and neutral platform to discuss further definition and development of the European servicing sector and to differentiate professional servicers from other services offered throughout the value chain. Year after year, EuroCatalyst, as the most visible and vocal advocate of the servicing sector in Europe with extensive expertise in servicing in both Europe and the United States, created that platform, incorporating all essential elements of the servicing sector without catering to its lowest common denominator.
“EuropeServicing will push the boundaries of the mortgage servicing sector,” EuroCatalyst CEO and founder Toni Moss said prior to co-hosting the event at the BFI Southbank in London. A leading global expert on housing finance with over 20 years of experience in U.S. and European markets, Moss’s hands-on expertise lies in rebuilding when markets go bad.
“Given the volatility of mortgage markets today and the ensuing panic, financial institutions are highly focused on managing their risk and it is important to highlight servicing as an area in which operational and credit risk converge,” Moss said. “I don’t think any other event out there can boost such high quality content or industry leadership.”
For the first time, the event was supported by CFA UK (formerly the UK Society of Investment Professionals), which has over 7,000 members working across the investment profession. “We’re opening up a direct dialogue with investors, discussing with them not only basic servicing issues such as investor reporting but also special servicing, including loss mitigation, arrears and default management,” Moss said before the show.