Tuesday 29th April 2008

08:30 Registration and morning refreshments

09:00 Chairman's opening remarks

Keith Mullin, Editor-in-Chief, IFR

09:10 Keynote Speaker

Matti Peltonen, Bureau Chief, Capital Markets, New York State Insurance Department

09:50 Regulatory view of sub debt in capital structures

• A key question in subordinated debt concerns security design
• Structure of course matters for pricing, but it has broader implications for the market
• Risk depends on the structure, often in nonlinear ways, particularly when interest rates are viewed as a process that evolves over time
• Securities can be sensitive to different aspects of interest rate risk, and even to the different components that drive interest rate
• All this in turn affects what sort of information gets discovered in market prices

Dr. Joseph G. Haubrich, Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

10:10 Relative value discussion

• Is there a certain structure, say non-call 10 or non-call 30, that is outperforming the broader hybrid market?
• There are relatively few floating-to-floating hybrids, how have those issues performed and do they trade differently from their fixed-to-floating counterparts?
• Is the PCDS market deep enough where those securities can provide some yardsticks for where a hybrid might price and/or trade?
• Is the market taking a more uniform approach to valuing hybrids or are there still a wide variety of methods used to value a structure?
• Has liquidity improved at all amid a series of larger deals and a deeper investor base in the past year, or is the market still susceptible to shutting down at certain times, such as the peak of the sub-prime concerns?

Steven R. Halperin, Co-head of Hybrid Solutions, Lehman Brothers
Andrew Karp, Head of Hybrid Syndicate, Banc of America Securities
Amy Spurr, MD, Head of Debt Financing Products Group, Merrill Lynch

10:40 Issuer perspectives

• What is the specific role that hybrid securities play in your capital structure?
• If you had preconceived notions heading into a recent hybrid trade, did the transaction meet those initial expectations?
• Do non-taxable hybrids, such as perpetual debt and trust preferred securities still have a place in your capital structure?
• What could be done to increase the flow of issuance from industrial borrowers?
• Will floating-rate hybrids have a larger role in the broader market, especially for financial services firms, going forward?
• In terms of an alternative payment mechanism, would a borrower be able to issue securities under if it were to reach that point?
• Does a replacement capital covenant tie an issuer’s hands and perhaps shape its capital structure in a way it would not otherwise take?

Peter Freilinger, Assistant Treasurer, Washington Mutual 

11:10 Morning Refreshments

11:30 Outlook for the primary market

• What have been some of the main determinants for pricing hybrids over the past year?
• Pipeline, issuance type
• Currency, maturity, structure, distribution
• Bank vs. insurance hybrids
• Floating-to-floating vs. fixed-to-floating
• Initial performance
• From an origination perspective, is it preferable to pursue a frequent issuer- for example one that needs to potentially refinance several older capital issues- or pursue less frequent issuers where a hybrid transaction would be a larger fee event?

Kyle Stegemeyer, Head of Client Solutions, Banc of America Securities
Kevin Ryan, Executive Director, Global Capital Markets, Morgan Stanley
Andrew Karp, Head of Hybrid Syndicate, Banc of America Securities

12:00 Bank capital discussion

• What are the latest regulatory capital developments?
• Why are there so many different structures and what types of instruments qualify as regulatory capital?
• How do the US structures compare with the Yankee structures?

Anthony Ragozino, Managing Director, Corporate Finance - Capital Products Structuring, Merrill Lynch
John Curran, Managing Director,Head of Liability Structuring, Deutsche Bank Securities

12:30 Lunch

14:00 Rating agency treatment

• At what point will you decide to re-evaluate how you treat certain features of hybrid securities, or the entire sector?
• How has the rating process evolved since the introduction of tax-deductible hybrids in 2005? Is there anything that could make it more efficient?
• Is there rating arbitrage in the hybrid market? 

Harold Thomas, Senior Director - Credit Policy Group, Fitch Ratings
Glenn Eckert, Senior Vice President, Moody's Investor Service
Anna Krayn, Analyst, Moody's Investor Service
Solomon Samson, Managing Director - Corporate Ratings; Member of New Instruments Committee, Standard & Poor's

14:35 Tax-deductible hybrids

• Structure - Are extensions on scheduled and final maturities now the preferred way to receive maximum equity credit from the agencies? Are issuers being steered away from using mandatory deferral triggers? Some investors have expressed concern about the presence of a call in year-five on recent deals, as it adds to the risk of issuers not being able to refinance the securities due to the replacement capital covenant - is that a relevant concern within the market?
• Pricing Will we go back to the tight boundary seen in early 2007? Are there specific uses of hybrid proceeds that can negatively affect pricing, perhaps more so than in the senior market?
• Trading - With their high beta nature, hybrids are usually the first instruments to widen amid any volatility. How can an orderly market be maintained during market turbulence, and is there anything that can be done to improve secondary sector efficiency? Has the introduction of preferred credit default swaps affected the market?
• Is there work being done on adding change of control language on a structure that would not sacrifice an equity basket from Moody's?
• Will there be any impact to hybrids issued from broker/dealers as the sector completes its shift to consolidated supervised entity status?

John Ross, North American Head of Hybrid Origination, JP Morgan
Thomas A. Humphreys, Partner, Morrison & Foerster
Vincent Vignale, Vice President, New Products Group, Citi
Scott Romanoff, Head of Hybrid Products, Goldman Sachs

15:15 Afternoon refreshments

15:50 Retail vs. Institutional

• What are the structural differences between institutional and retail trades?
• Certain trades attract interest from both retail and institutional investors - what structures are attractive to both investors and what are the drivers behind the cross-over demand
• What are the pricing and distribution benefits of retail trades compared to institutional deals?
• How real is the risk for over-saturation in the retail sector?
• How does the rating agency or regulatory framework impact the choice of structure or market?
• What is the value of DRD and QDI eligibility vs. issuing a tax-deductible hybrid?

John G. Hines, Managing Director, Head of  High Grade Syndicate,Wachovia Securities
John Dickey, Managing Director, Global Fixed Income New Products, Citi
Melissa Motherway, Head of US Hybrid Syndication,Citi
Dan Norton, Head of Financial Institutions Capital Solutions, Wachovia Securities
Amery Dunn, Head of Americas Debt Syndicate Group, Merrill Lynch

16:30 Investor perspectives

• Did the changing nature of the regulatory and rating agency backdrop put you off hybrid investments?
• Which deals and deal structures offer you the best value? How do you view the convertible structures that have been used by several of the larger banks - as five year securities, perpetual preferred stock or a combination of the two?
• What needs to be done to improve hybrid secondary market liquidity?
• How widely are you allowed to range in buying hybrid securities and are you likely to change your investing and trading mandate?
• Do you hedge your holdings? If so, how? 
  
  William Scapell, Senior Vice President, Cohen & Steers
  Scott T. Fleming, President, Stonebridge Advisors

17:15 Chairman’s closing remarks and end of conference