International credit conference participants value global exchange of ideas

Scholars and practitioners from across the globe gathered at Third International Credit Analysis and Risk Management Conference at Oakland University’s business school in late August.  An interactive learning experience, the two-day conference offered multiple perspectives including new and existing models and methods for credit risk management, credit analysis and relationship lending.

Led by Professor J. Austin Murphy, hosted by Oakland University’s Department of Accounting and Finance, the conference was sponsored by PNC Bank. 

Terry Benzschawel from Citigroup opened the conference.

With presentations by globally renowned financial and accounting experts including industry professionals from Citibank, Ford Motor Credit and the IMF as well as academics from the University of Michigan, Columbia University, Oakland University and the Paris School of Economics, the conference covered a wide range of applications, from retail to commercial credit, while offering attendees the chance to network with business leaders, industry colleagues and emerging business talent.

Terry Benzschawel, managing director of Citigroup's entire global bond portfolio, opened the conference with his keynote presentation on “Credit Risk Models: Past, Present and Future.” Later in the conference Terry also presented “The Credit Risk Premium: Measurement, Hedging and Prediction” and “Model for Sovereign Risk and Relative Value.”

A dinner reception at Meadow Brook Hall featured Ford Motor Credit’s Kevin Cooper discussing “Flexible, Efficient, Effective and Customer-Friendly Lending Operations.”

On day two, keynote speakers included Comerica’s Kevin Bodie discussing “Fundamentals and Challenges of Credit Risk Modeling for Commercial Portfolios” and Tyler Shumway, from University of Michigan, presenting “Forecasting Defaults of Private Firms.”

With about two dozen presentations, the conference also included such presentations as:

• Forecasting Loan Loss Rates using Multivariate Time-Series Models, by Hongbing Chen, Stonegate Mortgage
• Banks’ loan screen incentives with credit risk transfer: An alternative to risk retention, by Marc Arnold, University of St. Gallen
• Credit Risk Measurement, Leverage, and Basel III, by Marianne Ojo, North West University, South Africa
• Forecasting credit card portfolio losses in the Great Recession: A study in model risk, by Sougata Kerr, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
• Does the Macro-economy Impact Industry Credit Risk: A Study in an Emerging Market, by Rimpa Saha, Indian Institute of Technology

Harvey Stein from Bloomberg Trading Solutions with presenter Albert Cohen from Michigan State University.

For a full list of all presentations and speakers see the conference program here.

One measure of the quality of the conference presentations and speeches is indicated by the decision of the Journal of Credit Risk to once again devote an entire issue to the research presented. Cambridge Scholars Publishing will also publish a book summarizing all of the presentations and speeches.

Conference registrants came from the United States from such places as Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida. While others traveled from England, Germany and Switzerland to join in the discussions on this economically significant topic. 

Feedback from conference participants was uniformly positive. Attendees valued the global exchange of ideas.

“I very much enjoyed the two days of the conference, the presentations and the opportunity to get to know the participants. Overall, I think (Professor Murphy) organized a great – and fun – event and I am delighted to have made the trip,” says Richard Bussman , Central China Normal University, who also presented Introducing the Exchange Traded Pieced Loan.

In addition, about 15 people attended the half day Executive Credit Analysis Seminar held in conjunction with the conference.

The International Credit Analysis and Risk Management Conference is hosted alternately between Oakland University and business education centers in Europe. The Fourth International Conference on Credit Analysis and Risk Management will take place in August 2015 in Basel, Switzerland.