The Fixed Income Investor Network (FIIN), an offshoot of IMN, is set to launch its own educational program dedicated to structured finance.
In a panel at the ABS East conference in Miami on Tuesday, Joseph Lau, chairman of FIIN and chief investment officer at LordCap Green said: “Those of us who have been around long enough know that training programs don’t really exist anymore.”
The program is to include a multi-level examination process that is broadly self-directive, Lau added.
“This is going to end up being the bare nuts and bolts of how this market works,” said Lau. “The best thing is the benefit of including the practitioners in so much of the content, especially for the junior folks who have not been exposed to it, giving them a feel for how things really work.”
Fellow panellist Brian Herr, senior adviser at Sigma Financial, said the program presented a “huge opportunity”, and not just for recent graduates.
“The asset-backed market breeds creativity,” he said. “It’s absolutely for old guys like myself as well who continue to learn something new every day.”
Vincent Fiorillo, chief executive of Park Slope Advisers was also on the panel and highlighted the importance of investors in securitization working together and having a more coherent focus when dealing with policymakers and regulators. The hope is that FIIN and its educational programs can contribute to this.
“I learned back in 2008, after testifying in front of Congress, nobody had the investors back, said Fiorillo. “We had to fight.
“Here, we have an organization [where] all we do [is] work for the investor.”