High Powered Panelists On Tap For SEC Roundtable On Credit Rating Agencies

Twenty-six high powered panelists are on set to appear at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's April 15 Roundtable to Examine Oversight of Credit Rating Agencies. The roundtable will take place from 10am to 4:15 pm (closing remarks at 4:15) and will be webcast.


An updated agenda and list of panelists posted by the SEC on April 9 includes links to panelists' bios, and shows two changes vs. the earlier list of panelists in released by the SEC on March 24: a sixth rating agency (Realpoint LLC) has been added to panel 1, a new panelist has been added to panel 3 (the "users' panel") from the Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association, one panelist (Wellington Capital) has moved from panel 3 to panel 4 on approaches to improve credit rating agency oversight, and one panelist previously listed on panel 4 is no longer listed (Steven Thieke of the Group of Thirty) although another member of panel 4, Mayree C. Clarke, served as an expert on the Group of Thirty's recent report on Financial Regulation Reform. Below is the current list of panelists for the SEC's April 15 roundtable.

The first panel, with representatives from S&P (Deven Sharma), Moodys (Raymond McDaniel), Fitch (Stephen Joynt), Egan-Jones (Sean Egan), Realpoint (Robert Dobilas) and DBRS (Daniel Curry), will address: "Current NRSRO Perspectives: What Went Wrong and What Corrective Steps Is the Industry Taking?"


The second panel represents a wide-ranging mix of panelists, including Alex Pollack of the American Enterprise Institute, George Miller of the American Securitization Forum, Damon Silvers of the AFL-CIO (and Deputy Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel of TARP), Prof. Larry White of NYU, Prof. Frank Partnoy of the Univ. of San Diego, Ethan Berman of RiskMetrics Group, and James Gellert of Rapid Ratings International. The topic of the second panel is: "Competition Issues: What are Current Barriers to Entering the Credit Rating Agency Industry?"


The third panel on "users' perspectives" includes Deborah Cunningham on behalf of the Securities Industry and Fund Management Association (SIFMA), Jim Kaitz on behalf of the Association of Financial Professionals (AFP), Kurt Schacht of the CFA Institute, Paul Schott Stevens of the Investment Company Institute (ICI), Bruce Stern of the Association of Financial Guaranty Insurers, Alan Fohrer of Southern California Edison, and Gregory Smith of the Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association.

The fourth and final panel on "Approaches to Improve Credit Rating Agency Oversight" includes Jorgen Holmquist, Director General, Internal Market and Services, European, Joseph Grundfest, former Commissioner of the SEC now with Stanford Law School, Richard H. Baker, President of the Managed Funds Association (MFA) and a former member of the House Financial Services Committee, Mayree C. Clark of Aetos Capital, Christopher Gootkind of Wellington Management, and Glenn Reynolds of CreditSights Inc.