Solving the Credit Ratings Puzzle: How Moody’s Rates the Credit Worthiness of Banks and Money Market Funds

Do you know your banks credit worthiness?? You should! Learn about assessing your banks credit worthiness and rating money market funds. Moody’s will present two topics that we are all thinking about… how to rate your banks and how to understand your money market funds credit profile.

Assessing Bank Credit Worthiness

presented by Rita Sahu, VP, Senior Analyst, Moody’s Investor Services

Ms. Sahu will address recent trends in the US banking sector and key considerations in analyzing the bank credit worthiness such as asset quality, leading indicators for US bank asset quality, risks of competition, revenue challenges: low interest rates and limited economic growth, capital, regulation and stress testing.

Credit Profile and Stability Profile of Money Market Funds

presented by Neal Epstein, VP, Senior Credit Officer, Moody’s Investor Services

Mr. Epstein will discuss Moody’s approach to rating money market funds: credit profile and fund stability, bird’s eye view of the credit condition of Moody’s rated funds, stress analysis and fund stability, observations on the scarce supply of short term securities and anticipating reactions to money fund reform.

	Approved for up to 3 CTP/CCM recertification credits by the Association for Financial Professionals at the rate of one credit for each 50 minutes of attendance.
	Approved for up to 1.5 FP&A recertification credits by the Association for Financial Professionals at the rate of one credit for each 50 minutes of attendance.

about the speakers:

Rita Sahu

VP, Senior Analyst,
Moody’s Investor Services

Rita Sahu is a Vice President – Senior Analyst on the North American Banking Team, covering a portfolio of regional banks. She joined Moody’s in 2003 as an Associate Analyst after completing her MBA at Columbia University. Before graduate school, Ms. Sahu held positions with J.P. Morgan Chase, primarily in counterparty credit risk management, and with Republic National Bank of New York in compliance. Prior to that, she was with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency where she was a bank examiner for community and regional banks.
Ms. Sahu also holds a B.S. in accounting from Rutgers University.

Neal M. Epstein, CFA

VP, Senior Credit Officer
Moody’s Investor Services

Neal has fifteen years experience working with asset management firms as an investment banker, analyst, and portfolio manager. He joined Moody’s in 2011 where he focuses on credit analysis of asset management firms and credit and industry research. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Proctor Investment Managers, a private equity investor in the asset management industry, where he led manager research and due diligence efforts. He served as a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at OAM Avatar, responsible for the financial services sector and fixed income portfolios. He was also a founding partner of Overture Asset Managers, LLC where he actively participated in asset manager research,
performance attribution and product development for affiliate firms.
Formerly, Neal was an M&A associate and Vice President and Director of Research at Putnam Lovell Securities, where he focused on publicly traded asset manager research and industry strategy. Neal also served at Yamaichi Securities & Co., Ltd., Morgan Stanley and Marine Midland Bank.
Mr. Epstein earned an M.B.A. and M.A. in Asian Studies from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, an M.A. in Economics from Columbia University and a B.A. in Philosophy from Swarthmore College. A Chartered Financial Analyst, he is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the CFA Institute. He chairs the investment committee of the Brotherhood Synagogue in New York City.