The Structured Finance Industry Group’s (SFIG) conference, organized with Information Management Network, is on track to be the largest securitization event of 2014 with an anticipated 5000 attendees.
The conference is the SFIG’s first securitization event since it was formed by a group of the American Securitization Forum (ASF) defectors in March. The event scheduled to run for four days just before the ASF’s annual securitization event kicks off, has already signed up 125 sponsors with a conference agenda that is broadly driven by SFIG members.
The ASF has traditionally hosted an annual securitization event in Las Vegas which has in the past attracted more than 5,000 people. It’s unclear how big its upcoming 2014 conference will be but several industry players report that they plan to send lighter crews to the event or no one at all.
Ron D’Vari, CEO and Co-Founder of NewOak LLC and a fixture on panels at past IMN/ASF events confirmed that he will not attend the ASF conference in 2014. Kroll Bond Ratings said they would be sending “a very small team” to the ASF. “The bulk of the team is going to SFIG as that seems to be where most people are going,” said a KBRA spokesperson. And Moody’s Investors Service will only be sending its securitization credit analysts to the SFIG event.
Although the ASF has yet to post a conference agenda, a spokesperson at the group said that the plan is to tackle educational sessions like “Intro to Covered Bonds” on the first day of the conference and esoteric asset classes on the last day of the event. Its main conference days will look at top trends driving the securitization market, similar to its 2013 agenda.
The CRE Finance Council has also reported that attendance at its Jan. Miami conference is up. The group said that its 2014 event, which will be held on Jan 13-15 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel, could exceed 1,500, close to the 1,550 peak in 2007.
“Industry conference attendance is approaching pre-crisis peak levels, a sign of a maturing credit cycle, in our view,” said Standard & Poor’s analysts.
