Securities & Finance

The SEC announced the allocation of 20 additional positions to the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit (formerly known as the Cyber Unit) in the Division of Enforcement will grow to 50 dedicated positions.

Trade surveillance has become an essential tool for detecting unusual activity in financial transactions. Vega Economics has extensive experience in this area and we have worked on the leading edge of data driven analysis for trade surveillance and monitoring. Check out our Trade Surveillance Capacities brochure for more details.

This article discusses two cases that provide particularly helpful insights into recent 'short and distort' litigation and how the Vega team can assist clients involved in such cases.

The CFPB has recently published the proposals it is considering implementing as part of its regulatory responsibility to create regulations requiring AVM quality control standards. This summary addresses some of the issues presented in the CFPB outline and Vega's expertise in this space.

As we look back on our practice throughout 2021, we are proud of the variety of issues our work has covered. We had the opportunity to support several outstanding experts from a variety of disciplines and welcomed several new experts to our network. You’ll learn more about our work last year in this brochure, our 2021 Year in Review.

Our featured expert Gary Strumeyer is a former CEO/President of Bank of New York’s Broker Dealer, author of three books on the capital markets, and is currently a Professor of finance and economics.

Keeping abreast of regulatory compliance issues is a crucial component of doing business in the mortgage origination industry. This article offers a background and retrospective on several of the regulations and relevant enforcement entities involved in legal and compliance issues pertaining to residential mortgages.

The Journal of Portfolio Management has named Vega's expert Petter Kolm "Quant of the Year" for 2021! This award recognizes a researcher’s history of outstanding contributions to the field of quantitative portfolio theory.

In a recent American Arbitration Association proceeding, Dr. Andrew Zuppann and Vega Economics were retained by claimant's counsel to provide an expert analysis regarding the respondents' regulatory violations in the origination of mortgage loans.

Part 3 of Vega's 3-part series on student loans discusses the unique features of SLABS that create both opportunities and risks for investors, as well as the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on forbearances and cash flows.

Our Featured Expert, Charles Porten is an expert in the portfolio management of hedge funds and mutual funds, as well as due diligence procedures and fund compliance issues.

The market has tightened as SPACs have grown in popularity. There are currently hundreds of SPACs seeking acquisitions. Even before this tightening, SPACs have been criticized for misaligning sponsor and investor incentives. At Vega, we are closely monitoring market developments as sponsors come under more pressure to locate and secure deals.

Mr. Castro is an expert in mortgage origination, underwriting, servicing, mortgage banking. He also specializes in ABS, RMBS, CMBS, CDOs, CLOs, REITs, ABCP, SIVs, and other Structured Finance products.

Regulatory and enforcement agencies, market exchanges, and at least one private party have brought legal actions for alleged spoofing in futures markets. To meet applicable standards of proof, attorneys are increasingly turning to expert testimony regarding statistics and econometrics to prove and refute spoofing allegations in litigation.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued its long-awaited decision in Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. et al. v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement System et al. on June 21, 2021. The class certification stage will consequently become a critical and hotly contested place for expert debate in securities class actions.

In his released prepared remarks for the CFO Network Summit, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler highlighted areas of potential rulemaking around Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. Chairman Gensler has cited discussion and proposals based on Professor Dan Taylor’s article, "Gaming the System: Three 'Red Flags' of Potential 10b5-1 Abuse."

Our featured expert, Dr. Thomas Lys is is an expert in areas including accounting, corporate finance, corporate governance, real estate, and finance. Dr. Lys was recently supported by Vega to rebut plaintiffs’ damages calculations in seven cases brought against RMBS servicers and master servicers.

Experts testifying in conflict resolution proceedings at the ICSID should ideally be familiar with this forum’s unique rules and procedures. Vega affiliate Richard George has testified as an expert before ICSID on issues concerning generally accepted international banking practices. 

Vega discusses one form of market manipulation, spoofing, that is attracting increasing levels of government scrutiny and enforcement. 

Our featured expert, Haim Kassa, is is an expert in the areas of investments and portfolio management and he is experienced in the design and testing of trading strategies using historical firm level data from the stock, bond, and option markets.

Recent SEC accounting guidance reclassifying SPAC warrants as liabilities instead of equities has drawn new attention to SPACs. In light of these developments, we discuss SPACs and SPAC warrants.

Vega is experienced in analyzing rating methodologies and various other issues surrounding complex securities through the lens of the rating agencies. This brochure highlights our experience and how we can assist on cases involving any rating issues as this litigation continues to develop.

Vega has worked with numerous major financial institutions and analyzed issues related to all aspects of complex financial products. We will be your best ally in navigating the LIBOR transition given our deep institutional knowledge and advanced technology solutions.

Vega's research team discusses the widely anticipated ESG-related litigation claims and highlight our featured experts who can strengthen our clients position in these matters. 

Part 2 of Vega's 3-part series on student loans presents a survey of methods for modelling student loan default. 

In securities stock drop litigations, Vega provides comprehensive expert support on class certification, liability, and damages issues. In early phases of these cases we assist our clients to assess the merits of the cases.

Vega expands on our November publication Looking Forward: the CMBS Litigation Landscape, and discusses the trends in CMBS, the key players in the market, and potential claims that may arise in litigation.

Vega expert Professor Dan Taylor's new research article "Gaming the System: Three 'Red Flags' of Potential 10b5-1 Abuse" was featured in Cooley's special counsel Cydney Posner's discussion "Are 10b5-1 Plans Subject to Insider Trading Abuse?" on Cooley PubCo.

Part 1 of Vega's 3-part series on student loans discusses current trends in private student loans, including key statistics on originators, performance, and SLABs.

Using proprietary tools, Vega creates customized datasets from a range of sources and deliver our analyses with clear and informative visualizations. To illustrate the automated tool we developed we highlight three example visualizations that we periodically update using our automated data tools.

The Vega team has analyzed the available deal documents for the market's first MBS backed by SOFR-indexed loans and identified the relevant risk disclosures and replacement terms.

Vega anticipates that many cases will be filed regarding CMBS trusts following the COVID-19 economic shutdown. Our team of economists present information regarding possible expert analyses relevant to this space and select experts that can assist in these matters.

Vega economists discuss long-term trends in the U.S. corporate bond market since the financial crisis and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vega expert Dr. Andra Ghent recently shared her thoughts on the outlook for retail real estate via her latest article “How will Covid-19 Affect Commercial Real Estate,” published on Kenan Insight. 

The Vega team has significant experience supporting experts in cases related to securities fraud. This brochure gives an overview of Vega's securities fraud practice and related engagements. 

Vega expert Dr. Rajeev R. Bhattacharya discusses a new approach to confirm the (lack of) market efficiencies in securities cases in his new paper “Objective Measures of Market Efficiency: Applications to Securities Class Actions and Valuations."

Using recent U.S. public data, Vega analyzed how the announcement of a plea agreement has historically affected a company’s stock returns. We performed an empirical analysis of the impact of announcements of plea agreements on stock market returns using an “event study” approach. 

We interview Professor Jeffrey Wurgler, the Nomura Professor of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business to gain his insights on the current issues related to stock price. Professor Wurgler is an expert on corporate finance, capital markets, asset pricing, and behavioral finance. His research includes topics such as stock performance and the impact of investor sentiment.

Morgan Stanley Mortgage Loan Trust 2006-14SL, Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2006-14SL and Morgan Stanley Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2007-4SL v. Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital Holdings (N.Y. Sup. No. 652763/2012).

NCUA v. UBS Securities, LLC, et al. (D. Kan. No. 12-cv-2591) and NCUA v. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, et al. (D. Kan. No. 12-cv-2648).