Rutgers Business School's Master of Quantitative Finance Program presents a look at "The Sovereign Debt Crisis: Global Risk"

The speakers assembled for the event are Edward Altman, a professor of finance at New York University's Stern School of Business who is an expert in distressed debt markets and Adam Ashcraft, senior vice president of the financial risk management group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

They will be joined by Andrew Huszar, a former managing director and U.S. head of OTC derivatives client clearing for Morgan Stanley. Huszar also worked at the Federal Reserve managing the $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed security purchase program from 2009 to 2010.

"The Sovereign Debt Crisis: Global Risk" takes place Monday, Jan. 27  from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall Street, New York, NY. Students, industry professionals and journalists are invited to attend. Registration is required: http://bit.ly/1gqgw3p.

Fears of sovereign debt crisis have haunted investors since late 2009 as private and government debt levels around the world increased. Those concerns were heightened by the Eurozone crisis and the near default of Greece. The risk of default hit the U.S. last year when Detroit filed for bankruptcy in an effort to restructure $18 million in municipal debt.

David Brown, a first year student in the top-ranked Rutgers MQF program, said the topics of the sovereign debt and potential default is both relevant and riveting.

"The sovereign debt issue is huge," Brown said, "and it may be having a more significant impact than people think."

The panel of speakers is well-suited to delve into the compelling issue and engage in a high-level discussion on the Central Bank's actions in addressing debt and the prospect of defaults.  

In an illuminating Wall Street Journal op-ed piece last year, Huszar, who is currently a senior fellow at Rutgers Business School, sharply criticized the wisdom of the Fed's bond-buying strategy. The piece appeared under the headline "Confessions of a Quantitative Easer."

Altman is considered a pioneer in the development of models for predicting bankruptcy and managing credit risk. And in his role at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Ashcraft has done research on bank capital requirements as well as monetary policy.

The discussion will be moderated by Tom Keene, editor-at-large of Bloomberg News and host of Bloomberg Surveillance.

In the past, the event has drawn industry professionals, alumni and quant students from as far as Rhode Island. It has been featured by a number of publications, including Forbes.

The Quantitative Finance Summit was started in 2012 by former student John Iborg, who is currently working in risk management at J.P. Morgan. Iborg remains close to the program and the planning for the annual summit. Brown described the former student as a mentor.

In 2012, the Rutgers Master of Quantitative Finance Program was recognized as one of the Top 10 Quant Schools by a panel of Wall Street experts. Larry Keating, director of the MQF Office of Career Management, said Iborg wanted to create something "significant and memorable" that would build on that recognition and help to further differentiate the program at RBS. 

In fact, Keating said, the summit has become the MQF program's "signature event."

For more information about Rutgers Business School, go to www.business.rutgers.edu.

SOURCE Rutgers Business School