As a market leader in supporting expert testimony in securities litigation, Vega Economics’ Securities & Finance practice provides top tier economic analysis to our clients. We have worked with many of the world’s largest investment banks and have analyzed issues related to materiality, class certification, liability analyses, causation, and damages. The industry professionals in our expert network have experience supporting clients across all phases of financial and securities litigation.
Vega uses advanced data analytics and carefully assesses each case’s unique claims to identify the most robust method employable for addressing the issues of each case.
Below is a list of example engagements for our Securities & Finance practice:
Analysis of Out-of-Pocket Losses Calculations: In BlackRock Allocation Target Shares: Series S Portfolio, et al. v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (S.D.N.Y. No. 14-cv-09371), Vega Economics supported Dr. Ethan Cohen-Cole to analyze the alleged out-of-pocket losses as calculated by Plaintiffs.
Damages Analysis regarding RMBS Trustee’s Alleged Misconduct: In National Credit Union Administration Board v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., No. 14-cv-10067-KPF-SN (S.D.N.Y.), Vega supported damages expert Dr. Ethan Cohen-Cole in analyzing the premises and assumptions of repurchase damages calculations done by plaintiff's expert.
Damages Analysis regarding RMBS Trustee’s Alleged Misconduct: In Commerzbank AG v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., No. 15-cv-10033-KPF-SN (S.D.N.Y.), Vega supported the damages expert Dr. Ethan Cohen-Cole in analyzing the premises and assumptions of repurchase and tort damages calculations done by plaintiff’s expert.
Damages Analysis regarding RMBS Trustee’s Alleged Misconduct: In Phoenix Light SF Ltd., et al. v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., No. 14-cv-10102-KPF-SN (S.D.N.Y.), Vega supported the damages expert Dr. Ethan Cohen-Cole in analyzing the premises and assumptions of repurchase and servicing damages calculations done by plaintiffs’ expert.
Analysis of CDS Agreement on CDO: In China Development Industrial Bank v. Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, et al. (N.Y. Sup. No. 650957/10), plaintiff entered into a $275 million credit default swap with Morgan Stanley on the super senior tranche of a CDO. The Vega team supported Dr. Cohen-Cole in responding to plaintiff's experts regarding risk disclosed in the offering documents as well as the CDO ratings.
Spoofing in High Frequency Trading: In USA v Vorley and Chanu (1:18-cr-00035), Vega analyzed allegations of certain traders’ spoofing conduct and evaluated calculations of alleged market harm associated with these spoofing activities.
Analysis of the LIBOR Transition: The Vega team is engaged by one of the world’s largest banks to provide consulting and research support in connection with the LIBOR transition. As part of the engagement, Vega created mapping for over 300 RMBS transactions across different data sources and analyzes the impact of LIBOR transition and COFI cessation on loans backing these transactions.
Repurchase Analysis: A Vega expert was retained to provide an opinion regarding alleged breaches of representation and warranties in the loans underlying the MSM 2006-14SL and MSM 2007-4SL RMBS trusts. Specifically, the expert determined whether the alleged breaches, if true, would have resulted in a statistically significant increase in the risk for a given loan.
Valuation of Complex Securities: A Vega expert was retained in BlackRock Allocation Target Shares: Series S Portfolio, et al. v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (S.D.N.Y. No. 14-cv-09371) to respond to plaintiffs’ expert’s proposed class-wide damages methodologies. The class of plaintiffs in this case alleged that the indenture trustee was obligated to enforce repurchase of certain loans whose alleged representations and warranties breaches materially and adversely affected the value of the loans. The Vega expert critiqued the opposing expert’s method of valuing the RMBS tranches through the averaging method and opined that tranche value is a function of bond insurance, interest rate type, spread, credit ratings and macroeconomic conditions, all of which were ignored by plaintiffs’ expert.
Investment Ratings of Structured Investment Vehicles: The Vega team was retained to support three experts in a case regarding ratings of structured investment vehicles. The industry expert opined on the rating process, the finance expert analyzed and opined on the rating agency’s modelling methodologies, and the accounting expert calculated damages using an event-study methodology.
Investigation of Potential Bond Price Manipulation: Vega was engaged to investigate potential price manipulation in certain bond markets. As part of the engagement, we performed economic analysis using the primary and secondary market transactions that were required to be reported by registered broker-dealers.
Asset Transfer in REIT Transaction: A Vega expert calculated damages suffered by a class of shareholders in a real-estate investment trust (REIT) as a result of an asset transfer. The expert, supported by the Vega team, evaluated the economic rights of the different shareholder classes as determined by the structure of the REIT.
Market Maker Analysis: A Vega expert was engaged on In re: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y. No. 1:10-cv-03461) to analyze the alleged fraud and misrepresentation in the formation of CDOs and opine on the market making and hedging activities of the defendant.
Valuations of Fixed Income and Derivative Products: The Vega team supported an expert who was retained to analyze the effect of macroeconomic variables, changes in liquidity, and trust-specific factors such as bond insurance, interest rates, and spread in RMBS valuations. The Vega team has also supported expert's who valued derivative instruments associated with RMBS under various economic projections.
Government Investigation Regarding Due Diligence: The Vega team was retained to support an expert who analyzed the due diligence process for several hundred RMBS through the review of thousands of pre-securitization documents. The Vega expert also evaluated the disclosure of silent-second mortgages, the assignment of EV ratings, and the suitability and application of published due diligence sampling procedures.
Loss Causation Analysis: In National Credit Union Administration Board v. RBS Securities Inc., et al. (D. Kan. No. 11-cv-02340), a Vega expert was retained to analyze whether macroeconomic events were the key drivers of the unexpected defaults of loans underlying the RMBS. To do so, the expert, supported by the Vega team, performed a series of regressions as well as a sentiment analysis.
Comparable Performance Analysis: The Vega team supported an expert who examined the effect of the macroeconomic environment on loan defaults and assessed whether the defaults in the RMBS loan pools differed significantly from model predictions that incorporated macroeconomic variables.
Servicing and Master Servicing of RMBS: The Vega team supported both the damages rebuttal expert and the servicing expert in the analysis and drafting of expert reports to address claims related to the obligations of the servicer and master servicer of RMBS in a half dozen cases.
Class Action Issues Regarding RMBS Trustees: In Royal Park Investments SA/NV v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (S.D.N.Y No. 1:14-cv-09764) and BlackRock Allocation Target Shares: Series S Portfolio, et al. v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (S.D.N.Y. No. 1:14-cv-09764), Vega supported a damages expert in analyzing the complex payment structures of the at-issue RMBS and determining the extent of heterogeneity among class members to address whether a proposed damages methodology could be consistently applied on a class-wide basis.
Materiality Analysis of RMBS Misrepresentations: In National Credit Union Administration Board v. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, et al. (D. Kan. No. 2:12-cv-02648) and National Credit Union Administration Board v. UBS Securities, LLC, et al. (D. Kan. No. 12-cv-02591), a Vega expert used economic analysis to determine whether the allegedly misrepresented loan characteristics would have been material to the total mix of information available to an investor. This analysis withstood plaintiff’s motion to exclude.
Visiting Professor of Finance in the Cox School of Business at SMU
- Securities & Finance
- Data Science & Statistics
- Valuation
- Antitrust & Competition
Founder of Robust Advisors, Inc.
- Financial Institutions
- Securities & Finance
- Real Estate
Managing Director, Vega Economics
- Consumer Finance
- Corporate Finance
- Data Science & Statistics
- Labor & Employment
- Securities & Finance
Assistant Professor of Finance and Real Estate at Yeshiva University and CEO of WOTN
- Valuation
- Insurance & Risk
- Securities & Finance
- FinTech, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency
- Financial Institutions
- Real Estate
Senior Advisor at Vega Economics
- Securities & Finance
- Data Science & Statistics
- Financial Institutions
- Valuation
- Consumer Finance
- Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
- Healthcare & Health Economics
Principal at Bank Experts Group
- Corporate Finance
- Financial Institutions
- Real Estate
- Securities & Finance
- Corporate Governance
Associate Professor of Finance at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School
- Securities & Finance
- Valuation
- Corporate Finance
- FinTech, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency
- Antitrust & Competition
Associate Professor in the Department of Finance of the Villanova School of Business at Villanova University
- Antitrust & Competition
- Corporate Finance
- Securities & Finance
- Data Science & Statistics
- Financial Institutions
- Real Estate
Gary D. Cohn Goldman Sachs Chair in Finance in the Kogod School of Business at American University
- Securities & Finance
- Financial Institutions
Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Northern Iowa
- Securities & Finance
- Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources
- Valuation
- Real Estate
Associate Professor of Finance at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University
- Securities & Finance
- Antitrust & Competition
- Data Science & Statistics
- Financial Institutions
- Valuation
Lecturer of Accounting at UCLA Anderson School of Management
- Accounting
- Securities & Finance
- Valuation
- Corporate Governance
Director of the Mathematics in Finance Master's program and a Clinical Professor of Mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University; Partner at CorePoint.
- FinTech, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency
- Securities & Finance
- Financial Institutions
- Data Science & Statistics
- Valuation
Allstate Chair in Insurance and Finance at UCLA Anderson School of Management
- Insurance & Risk
- Accounting
- Securities & Finance
- Valuation
- Financial Institutions
Eric L. Kohler Professor Emeritus at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
- Antitrust & Competition
- Securities & Finance
- Accounting
- Valuation
- Real Estate
Albert and Jeanne Clear Career Development Professor and an Assistant Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management
- Securities & Finance
- Corporate Finance
- Consumer Finance
- Financial Institutions
University Lecturer at NYU Courant; Partner at CorePoint
- Data Science & Statistics
- Valuation
- Securities & Finance
- Financial Institutions
- FinTech, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency
Professor of Finance in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University
- Securities & Finance
- Valuation
- Corporate Finance
- Financial Institutions
- FinTech, Blockchain, and Cryptocurrency
John M. Schiff Professor of Finance in the Stern School of Business at NYU
- Securities & Finance
- Financial Institutions
Glenn Klimek Professor of Finance at Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University
- Securities & Finance
- Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
- Consumer Finance
Adjunct Professor of Finance/Economics, at LIU Post
- Corporate Finance
- Financial Institutions
- Securities & Finance
- Corporate Governance
Principal, Vega Economics
- Labor & Employment
- Securities & Finance
- Data Science & Statistics
- Antitrust & Competition
- Healthcare & Health Economics