LIBOR SUMMIT USA: Prepare for the Libor transition

The Libor Summit USA will take place on November 7 at the New York Marriott Marquis the day after Risk.net’s flagship event, Risk USA.

What to look forward to at Libor Summit USA:

• Engaging with objective industry experts, including the Risk.net editorial team
• Debating the future of the industry with senior risk management and risk transfer professionals
• Benchmarking your firm’s approach by hearing from leading financial institutions and banks

Be Part of the leading global discussion to:

• Benchmark your preparations with your peers from leading banks and buyside firms
• Gain exclusive insight from leading ARRC members including MetLife, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs
• Identify the cutting edge technologies paving the way for a smooth transition with interactive sessions led by KPMG and IntelScout
• Understand the for and against argument for Secured Overnight Financing Rate as well as proposed alternative reference rates

Libor Summit USA: Program

• 08:20: Registration opens
• 08:50: Opening remarks by Robert Mackenzie Smith, editor, US asset management, RISK.NET
• 09:00: Fireside chat: how is JPM thinking about Libor transition? by Alice Wang, managing director corporate and investment bank strategy, J.P. Morgan Chase and Moderator by Richard Berner, executive in residence and adjunct professor, NYU Stern School of Business

1. Is this the approach that everyone in the industry is taking?
2. Do you think that people will be ready?
3. What makes this different from other changes that have occurred in the market over time?
4. What are the implications of this?

• 09:30 – 10:30: Dangers for corporate and asset managers in the transition. Quick fire presentations from leading firms tackling the transition moderated by Robert Mackenzie Smith, editor, US asset management, Risk.net; Chris McAllister, global head of derivatives trading, Prudential; Christian Rasmussen, head of group treasury assets and liabilities Americas, UBS; Dr Robert de Roeck, head of structured solutions, investment innovation team, Aberdeen Standard Investments

1. The transition impact on leading firms
2. Transition planning and program essentials
3. Implementation risks – examples

• 10:30: Dawn of alternative reference rates: curve construction fundamentals by Ping Sun, senior vice president of financial engineering, Numerix

1. Introduction to RFRs and curve stripping: a focus on SOFR
2. New curve instruments observed in today’s market based on ARRs
3. Market best practices in constructing curves and how they can be applied to ARRs

• 11:00: Morning networking break
• 11:30: Implementing new Libor fallback provisions panel moderated by Chris Killian, managing director, securitization and credit markets, SIFMA; Tess Virmani, associate general counsel & senior vice president, public policy, LSTA; Gary Horbacz, principal, fixed income structured product team, Prudential Financial; Ann Battle, assistant general counsel, ISDA; Alexis Pederson, senior company counsel, Wells Fargo

1. Amendment of ISDA’s 2006 definitions for OTC derivatives and adoption for legacy contracts via protocol
2. Fallback provisions for FRNs and syndicated loans
3. Fallback provisions for bilateral loans and securitization

• 12:10: Operational readiness panel discussion moderated by Simon Potter, non-resident, senior fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Rachel Bryant, head of libor transition, Regions Bank; Gaurav Shukla, managing director, Morgan Stanley

1. Operational challenges of moving to new rates
2. A checklist for systems upgrades – the size of the IT challenge and what changes firms need to make

• 12:50: Lunch and networking break.

1. Content led lunch tables – lunch and learn by joining industry leaders and peers at your choice of themed, content-led lunch tables.
2. Operational readiness – Rachel Bryant, head of libor transition, Regions Bank
3. The RFR trading perspective – Edward Ocampo, independent advisor

• 13:30: Single step discounting transition: the impact on market participants moderated by Vikash Rughani, business manager, TriOptima; Subadra Rajappa, head of US rates strategy, Société Générale; Milton Brown, executive director, head of Americas XVA, UBS

1. The change to SOFR discounting for USD-denominated and non-deliverable swaps at both LCH & CME
2. How the industry can manage their exposures through the change

• 14:10 Libor demos: how can technological advances support your firm in the transition? by Chris Dias, principal, KPMG

1. Using AI to validate exposure
2. Linking structured data and unstructured data
3. Contract analytics

• 14:30: How technology advancements can help with high volume contract review by Henry Friesen, founder and CEO, IntelScout

1. Tagging provisions to enable decision matrices, work assignment and monitoring
2. Ensuring consistency and compliance to standard language – demo
3. Tracking communication throughout the remediation exercise

• 14:40: Managing the internal and external communication challenges panel discussion by Brian Grabenstein, managing director and head of Libor transition office, Wells Fargo; Sairah Burki, managing director, head of policy, Structured Finance Association; Rachel Bryant, head of Libor transition, Regions Bank; Lisa Pendergast, executive director, CRE Finance Council

1. Client expectations
2. Contract negotiations
3. Legacy contracts
4. Conduct and governance
   • Fiduciary duty for asset managers
   • Customer care for banks

• 15:20: Afternoon networking break
• 16:10: RFR Trading Opportunities in Transition moderated by Edward Ocampo, independent advisor; Kirsten Doody, deputy COO for fixed income and commodities, Morgan Stanley

1. Who is trading RFRs and what are the principal applications?
2. How can more broad based participation be catalysed in derivative markets?
3. Can cash markets build on success of SOFR FRN market?
4. Do sterling markets offer useful precedents for US transition?

• 16:50: For or against SOFR as the benchmark rate Oxford style debate. This house believes that SOFR should and will be the main benchmark rate. Moderated by Richard Berner, executive in residence and adjunct professor, NYU Stern School of Business

1. FOR: Gaurav Shukla, managing director, Morgan Stanley; Blake Gwinn, US rates strategist, NatWest Markets
2. AGAINST: Ralph Axel, director in US rates research, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

• 17:30: Chair’s summary and closing remarks
• 17:40: Networking drinks

Register here for Libor Summit USA.