Conference Agenda
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
3:45 PM
Registration Opens
Sponsored by:
4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Municipal Leadership Roundtable: How Municipal Finance Is Changing
The fundamental changes buffeting the municipal market this year have had widely different implications for different types of broker-dealers. From the demise of derivatives to the rise of retail, how are various firms reacting? Our diverse panel of industry leaders will discuss how they've weathered the storm...and provide their forecasts for 2009.
Moderators:
J. Ben Watkins
Director of Bond Financing
State of Florida
Michael Stanton
Publisher
The Bond Buyer
Panelists:
Joseph Fichera
CEO
SABER Partners
Terry Finn
President & CEO
Stern Brothers
Daniel Keating
Samuel A. Ramirez & Co.
Jim Lebenthal
Chairman
Lebenthal & Co.
Scott Richbourg
Chief Operating Officer
FSA
Peter Shapiro
Managing Director
Swap Financial Group
Stratford Shields
Director of Public Finance
Morgan Stanley & Co.
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Opening Cocktail Reception
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
7:00 AM - 7:30 AM
Registration Opens
Sponsored by:
7:30 AM - 8:30 AM
Continental Breakfast in Exhibit Hall
Sponsored by:
8:30 AM - 9:15 AM
Keynote Video Address
Speaker:
Hon. Gerald Connolly, D-VA
Member
U.S. House of Representatives
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
Re-Starting The Engine: Policy Changes To Restore Municipal Market Liquidity
The enduring liquidity crisis that has driven interest rates on municipal bond well above Treasuries is setting off alarms in Washington, and policy-makers who recognize the importance of low-cost financing to the nation's infrastructure programs are discussing regulatory and legal changes that could help municipal issuers attract new buyers, from increasing the limits on the size of deals that banks can hold as tax-exempt investments to new Federal guarantee programs. This panel will discuss which initiatives hold the most promise for improving the market ... and ways the industry can help these initiatives move forward in the Washington legislative process.
Moderator:
Steve Heaney
Managing Director
Stone & Youngberg
Bob Inzer
County Clerk
Leon County, Fla.
Mitch Rapaport
Partner
Nixon Peabody
Robert Shoback
Senior Managing Director
Ambac Assurance Corp.
10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Morning Coffee Break And Networking Opportunity
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10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
The Future of Infrastructure Finance
Municipal bonds have long been the primary - and often only - source of capital funding for state and local government infrastructure projects, from schools and water systems to power plants and highways. In more recent years, Congress has increasingly turned to tax-exempt bonds as targeted assistance to rebuild shattered communities, as in the aftermath of 9/11, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, or the Midwest floods.
But at the same time the municipal market has sagged under the weight of climbing yields, alternatives have also been emerging, from public-private partnership transactions to direct Federal funding through a massive economic-stimulus package. As a new administration and Congress take office, which way is the pendulum likely to swing?
Moderator:
Amy B. Resnick
Editor-in-Chief
The Bond Buyer
Lynn Hampton
Chief Financial Officer
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
Tyler Duvall
Former Assistant Secretary
U.S. Department of Transportation
Michael McDermott
Managing Director
FitchRatings
11:45 AM - 12:30 PM
Issuer Budget Strategies In A Challenging Year
Charles Jones
President and CEO
Inland Public Properties Development
12:30 PM - 2:15 PM
Regulatory Reform And The Municipal Market: A Discussion
As the financial crisis deepens and the Obama administration takes office, the prospects for fundamental changes to the nation's financial regulatory structure are growing. What's likely in store for the municipal market -- and how can market participants organize to help influence the debate?
Moderator:
Michael Decker
Co-President
Regional Bond Dealers Association
Lynnette Hotchkiss
Executive Director
Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board
2:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Municipal Ratings Policy and Credit Enhancement
Municipal credit criteria are undergoing their most significant re-assessment in decades, as the ratings agencies respond to public-sector and Congressional demands that they re-assess the relative credit quality of municipals in the context of other issuer types - at the same time US municipal issuers are facing the stiffest fiscal challenges, perhaps since the Great Depression. How are the raters navigating this landscape, and what does it mean for the prospect of a renaissance for bond insurance?
Moderator:
Alan Polsky
Dougherty & Co.
Howard Mischel
Managing Director
Standard & Poor's
Gail Sussman
Managing Director
Moody's Investors Service
Richard Kolman
Chief Executive Officer
Municipal Infrastructure Assurance Corp.
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Afternoon Coffee Break and Networking Opportunity
Sponsored by:
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Toward A More Perfect Market: Improving Municipal Disclosure
Disclosure has long been a key concern for municipal-market investors and regulators. From short-staffed issuer finance departments to a decentralized, poorly coordinated network of information repositories, it has often been difficult to get the information you want, when you want it. The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board's EMMA system promises to eliminate some of the coordination challenges, but will it be enough to satisfy all market participants?
Moderator:
Paula Stuart
CEO
DAC
Lynnette Hotchkiss
Executive Director
Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board
Lisa Olson
SVP
DAC Bond
Pamela Peterson
Associate General Counsel
UBS Wealth Management
Peter Schmidt
President
DPC Data
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Cocktail Reception
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Friday, February 20, 2009
7:30 AM - 8:30 AM
Continental Breakfast
Sponsored by:
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Municipal Investing and Trading Strategies
Despite the turmoil in the marketplace, municipal bonds are regularly cited in the mainstream financial media as a zone of opportunity for investors to gain significant additional yield without taking on undue risks. Our panel of market experts will discuss the safest ways to cash in.
Tom Doe
President
Municipal Market Advisors
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Distributing Municipals In A Tight-Liquidity Market
The "commoditization" municipal bonds - a trend driven by the activity of large institutional buyers like hedge funds, nearly-ubiquitous bond insurance, and ready broker-dealer capital - is over. In its place, broker-dealers and issuers are investing far more time and effort to sell their bonds before the pricing, and going back to basics with a focus on retail and other traditional tax-exempt buyers. What will this mean for how deals are priced, and how much volume the market can absorb? What are the new "best practices" for pricing bond issues?
Moderator:
William Hogan
Senior Managing Director
Public Finance Group, Assured Guaranty
Peter Delahunt
National Sales Manager
Raymond James & Assoc.
Dan Kiley
SVP and Director of Municipal Retail Fixed-Income
Wachovia Securities
John Seely
Vice President
TheMuniCenter
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Valuation and Pricing
Municipal market participants have long confronted the challenge of valuing bonds that trade infrequently, and thus offer few hard data points on price. Using actual trades to determine the value of similar bonds is the obvious answer, but even that approach has been stressed by rapidly-changing fundamentals, like the historically high ratio of municipal bond yields compared with Treasuries. How are pricing methodologies adjusting to the new conditions?
Moderator:
Michael Marz
Vice Chairman
First Southwest Co.
Jeff Banker
Interactive Data Corp.
Michael O'Connor
Director of Product Management
Standard and Poor's Securities Evaluations Services
Angelia Schmidt
Executive Director
JP Morgan