How are you protecting your portfolio and planning for the future?

In light of the credit crunch and deteriorating housing market, uncertainties over interest rates, investor demand, and bond insurers have the municipal bond market on its toes.  

Questions over credit quality and the value of bond insurance will also affect how borrowers sell their debt. The relationship between rates in the municipal market and those on Treasuries could also indirectly affect the way issuers approach the market this year.

HOT TOPICS:

Counterparties in Current Market Conditions: What is Happening with Swap Counterparties & What Options/Collateral Issuers Have
Counterparty risk is front and center as a lot of the swap counterparties have been downgraded.

Products in Current Market Conditions: Credit Spreads & the Flight to Quality
What kinds of trades are optimal for current market conditions (CMS, Structured Notes, Basis Swaps, Synthetic Fixed Rate)?

Municipal Credits & Swaps
Ratings and insurance and how they’ve affected the short-term and long-term market.

Global vs. Municipal Rating Scale
How are the disparities between municipal and global credit ratings affecting issuers’ money market eligibility of their floating-rate paper?

Strategies for Dealing with the Auction-Rate Market Liquidity Crunch: Conversion Options
Learn more about the steps issuers are taking to deal with the crisis.

How are you dealing with the ongoing turmoil in the capital markets?

The divergence of these markets has made hedging difficult and brought pain to many of the hedge funds, broker-dealer proprietary deals, and other arbitrage investors in the municipal market. Municipal yield curves will steepen this year, and credit spreads are widening. The market turmoil has also impacted the auction-rate security market and is forcing issuers to mitigate away from the auction rate market to more secure forms of debt. Issuers, more so now than ever before, need to closely monitor their portfolios and plan accordingly for the future.

Who Should Attend:

Municipal finance professionals including: