Name: Frontline Perspectives: Digital Infrastructure in an AI Era
Start: 2023-05-03T14:00:00Z
End: 2023-05-03T14:00:49.000Z
Location: BrightTALK
Rating: 0

DBRS Morningstar is a leading provider of independent rating services and opinions for corporate and sovereign entities, financial institutions, and structured finance instruments globally.  Rating more than 4,000 issuers and 60,000 securities, we are the fourth-largest credit rating agency in the world and a market leader in Canada, the U.S. and Europe in multiple asset classes.



With public and private capital supporting the energy transition, the global engineering and consulting sector is seeing strong opportunities amidst the increased spending. With the increase in demand, firms in the sector are facing challenges such as skilled labor constraints, a highly competitive market as well as risks and costs associated with developing innovative solutions. 

Join DBRS Morningstar for a discussion on the tactics that global engineering firms are employing to overcome these challenges and capitalize on opportunity.  Whether undergoing M&A, leveraging innovative partnerships or internally developing expertise, all strategies have their unique set of risks. We will review these different strategies and their potential credit implications, as well as opportunity for financial risk or gain.

Frontline Perspectives: Global Engineering: The Race Toward Energy Innovation

Join us on Thursday, 23 November 2023 entitled “ESG and Credit: Serving the Underserved”. Mudasar Chaudhry, Head of European Structured Finance Research, will be joined by Christian Aufsatz, Head of European Structured Finance, and Simon Murphy, Vice President of European Operational Risk, to explore the social aspects of lending to underserved borrowers and its impact.

The speakers will discuss the key parameters that define an "underserved borrower", the different types of underserved borrowers, and whether lending to the underserved is a social factor.

Additionally, the speakers will address aspects to focus on when considering lending to underserved borrowers in the context of European structured finance transactions and credit rating analysis.

The discussion will last approximately 30 minutes and will be followed by an interactive question-and-answer session. DBRS Morningstar welcomes all who wish to participate.

Frontline Perspectives - ESG and Credit: Serving the Underserved

DBRS Morningstar believes that the enclosed shopping mall remains an integral retail format for Canadian mall operators from a long-term strategic and growth perspective. While headlines and media coverage have mostly focused on the decline of malls, top-tier malls are actually thriving. Despite near-term challenges such as weakening purchasing power and growing fears of a potential recession, the Canadian regional mall space has significant opportunity for growth. 

Join DBRS Morningstar for a discussion on the resiliency of Canadian enclosed malls, as we review their strength in the long-term. We will look at some of the key performance indicators which support our line of argument and also delve on a few structural factors that may impact the industry, such as population growth and rising household incomes.

Frontline Perspectives: Canadian Enclosed Malls - Better Than Resilient

Listen in as Doug Turnbull, Vice Chairman and Country Head, Canada, DBRS Morningstar interviews Scott Hartz.

Q&A with Scott Hartz, CIO, Manulife Financial Corporation

This Global Corporates discussion will review our credit opinions on inflation, interest rates, and issuance trends in the Airline, Grocer, Automotive, Middle Market, and Telecom sectors. In addition, we will consider how Artificial Intelligence is redefining the relationship between firms and consumers.

Diversified Industry Dynamics: Macro Trends Buffet Firms, While AI Empowers Them

Economic performance in 2023 has exceeded expectations, but gathering storm clouds on the horizon point to a more challenging 2024. The economic environment is unlikely to be supportive in the near term. Sovereigns are expected to face additional fiscal challenges as they prioritize increased defense spending, boost climate related investment, and address the needs of aging populations. Meanwhile, geopolitical conflicts loom large, putting energy, food, and supply chain security at risk. Come find out why, in spite of all the doom and gloom, DBRS Morningstar sovereign rating upgrades have matched the number of downgrades in 2023.

Global Sovereign Outlook: Rising Rates, Rising Tensions, and Rising Temperatures

This session will focus on developments in the Canadian securitization market in 2023 including an update on issuance levels in the ABS and ABCP markets. Year to date performance of consumer-backed asset classes will be the focus of the performance update as we examine how Canadian consumers are managing to continue to pay their bills following the unprecedented series of interest rate hikes over the last two years. Panelists Mike Jefferson, CIBC and Prem Williams, TD will discuss their latest initiatives in their bank-sponsored ABCP conduits to provide investors additional confidence in the face of economic headwinds.  The session panelists will conclude with an outlook on performance in the consumer-backed asset classes.

Structured Finance Canada Developments and Performance Outlook

Join Christopher Tsichlas, Senior Vice President, Corporate Real Estate, as he moderates an informed discussion with three senior real estate finance executives on what they're doing to manage interest rate risk in the current environment. How are rates impacting their strategies? What are they doing to mitigate the impact? How are elevated rates affecting the outlook and credit quality for leading real estate enterprises?

Managing the Curve: How Real Estate Entities are Handling Rate Risk

In this session, Carl De Souza, Senior Vice President, North American Financial Institutions will discuss Canadian banks in a global context, touching on their fundamentals and how they are positioned for growth opportunities moving forward.  There will be an overview of their franchise strength, earnings power, risk profile, funding and liquidity, and capitalization. We will also discuss the impact that higher interest rates are having on the banking sector and how banks are approaching climate change.

Solid Fundamentals Position Large Canadian Banks for Growth Opportunities

In this session, Michael Goldberg, Senior Vice President, Sports Financing will examine the credit implications of some of the recent trends in sports finance: How has private equity investment in sports franchises impacted credit risk? Can Saudi Arabian spending disrupt European football or other sports leagues? What impact will “can’t miss” superstars, Connor Bedard and Victor Wembanyama have on their new teams’ financial profiles?

Sports Investment: The Full-Court Press is On

During this session, Nadja Dreff, Senior Vice President, Head of Canadian Insurance will discuss the global insurance industry's performance and outlook in light of higher interest rates and climate change. The session will highlight the key risks and opportunities facing Canadian insurers as they become increasingly more relevant players on the global stage.

Can Insurers Maintain Profitability Amidst High Interest Rates & Climate Change?

DBRS Morningstar has examined how major oil & gas companies are responding to contrasting energy transition policies in North America and Europe. Companies are making the shift and keying on developing hydrocarbons responsibly and decarbonizing their activities. Moreover, energy security concerns have reemerged and oil and gas looks to remain an important part of the energy mix for some time. Bearing in mind these factors, in this session our thought leaders will discuss the implications for oil & gas sector credit ratings.

Carrots, Sticks & Responsibly Producing Oil & Gas

Join DBRS Morningstar on October 5 2023 for a Frontline Perspectives webinar focused on Mortgage Insurance (MI) credit considerations for non-agency securitizations. In this presentation, Yash Shah, Senior Vice President, U.S. RMBS, and Sagar Kongettira, Managing Director, U.S. RMBS, will give an overview on private mortgage insurance and offer insights into reforms and enhancements implemented in the sector since the financial crisis of 2007. 

Our discussion will also highlight factors considered by DBRS Morningstar for MI credit, including the financial strength of the mortgage insurer, along with rescissions, denials, and curtailment activities. 

A Q&A session will follow the presentation for the audience to participate in the conversation.

Frontline Perspectives | Mortgage Insurance Credit Considerations

Join DBRS Morningstar on September 27th for a Frontline Perspectives webinar focused on Single Asset C-PACE ABS. In this presentation, Stephanie Mah, Senior Vice President, Structured Finance Research and Ed Dittmer, Senior Vice President, Real Estate Adjacent Assets, will discuss the latest industry trends (origination and securitization volumes) across the PACE market and delve into DBRS Morningstar’s rating approach to single-asset C-PACE securitizations.

Frontline Perspectives | Single Asset C-PACE

As the critical infrastructure of a society has evolved beyond brick and mortar or power and transmission lines, infrastructure investing has entered the digital age. Timely information is a necessity, and the physical systems that facilitate the delivery of this data, such as cell towers, data centers, and fiber optic networks are considered essential infrastructure.

Join DBRS Morningstar on September 19th at 10:00am EST/ 3:00 GMT where Victor Leung, Senior Vice President, Project Finance, will discuss how the DBRS Morningstar team assess credit risks in the new world of essential digital infrastructure.

Frontline Perspectives: Assessing Essential Digital Infrastructure

DBRS Morningstar is requesting comments on the proposed updates to the “Global Methodology for Rating Public-Private Partnerships." 

Join us for a webinar presented by Kevin Li, Senior Vice President, Infrastructure Finance and Suneil Ramesh, Vice President, Infrastructure Finance, as they provide an overview of the proposed material changes to the methodology.

DBRS Morningstar Requests Comments on Proposed Updates to the P3 Methodology

With 8 months of 2023 complete, DBRS Morningstar’s updates its medium-term outlook on Global Corporate Real Estate, North American CMBS and European CMBS sectors. Is the medium-term outlook for GCRE still negatively tilted, has North American CMBS experienced further cracks in the office and continued softening in multifamily and industrial sectors. As market values have been declining, what has happened to loan maturities in the North American and EU CMBS? 
 
Join DBRS Morningstar on September 14 at 10:00 a.m. EST/3:00 p.m. GMT for a Frontline Perspectives webinar on the challenges for these sectors including elevated interest rates, moderating inflation, physical occupancy, and opportunities. The presentation will be moderated by Brenda Lum, Managing Director, Global Corporate Real Estate and will feature Chris Tsichlas, Senior Vice President of Corporate Real Estate, Steven Jellinek, Vice President of CRE, and Mirco Iacobucci, Head of European CMBS who will discuss updated expectations for the remainder of 2023 and 2024 and review performance for the first 8 months of 2023. A Q&A session will follow for the audience to participate in the conversation.

Frontline Perspectives: Global Real Estate Market - 2023 Outlook Update

Join DBRS Morningstar on August 17th at 2:00 p.m. EST for a Frontline Perspectives webinar on the state of the Non-Qualified Mortgage market presented by Corina Gonzalez, Senior Vice President, U.S. RMBS, Mark Branton, Vice President, U.S. RMBS, and Youriy Koudinov, Senior Vice President, U.S. RMBS. The presentation will include a performance update, collateral trends, and an outlook for rest of 2023. A Q&A session will follow the presentation for the audience to participate in the conversation.

Frontline Perspectives: Non-Qualified Mortgage Mid-Year Review

Artificial Intelligence has taken the technology world by storm, with much attention being drawn to the impact that the AI revolution will have on companies in the sector.  We believe that this adoption will drive strong, long-term demand and usage of digital infrastructure assets, such as data centres and cellular towers, reinforcing their already critical role in the digital economy. This critical role has underpinned significant interest and activity in digital infrastructure from debt investors, predicated on the long-term essentiality and stability of cash flows of the asset class. 

In this webinar, DBRS Morningstar will discuss initial views of AI’s possible impact on the sector and the rating factors underlying their creditworthiness.  The webinar will last approximately 30 minutes followed by Q&A.

Frontline Perspectives: Digital Infrastructure in an AI Era

Data Center

Artificial Intelligence

Morningstar

Digital Transformation

Capital Markets

Integration

Digital Infrastructure

Big Data Storage

Welcome to the US financial advisor community on BrightTALK. Join the community to learn alongside thousands of financial advisors and registered investment advisors. Access relevant and timely content on investment products and strategies, regulations and compliance and the market landscape. You can also find practice management insights on topics such as client acquisition and retention, life planning, marketing and social media best practices.

US Financial Advisors

This community is for investors who work within the European market providing client and portfolio management advice. Join to learn from trusted investors on the latest trends and account strategies for delivering consistent results and long term success.

European Investors

This community is for institutional investors responsible for managing large-scale funds. Join to learn how top institutional investors are managing their organization’s shares, influencing the market, and what tips they have for successful investment strategies.

Institutional Investors

Get powerful banking and treasury insights for your business. Connect with experts and colleagues to get the most up-to-date knowledge on hot topics such as digital banking, payments disruption and non-bank competition. Learn how the latest treasury management strategies are helping to mitigate operational, financial and reputational risk.

Banking and Treasury

The accounting and finance community on BrightTALK features presentations from leading accountants and finance professionals. The accounting community includes tax planning strategies, QuickBooks webinars and other accounting webinars, while the finance community features presentations on financial capital regulations and forensic data analytics. Join the conversation by attending live financial and accounting presentations and connecting with industry thought leaders.

Frontline Perspectives: Digital Infrastructure in an AI Era

Presented by

About this talk

More from this channel