It was today announced that the CEO and R&D Director of Luxembourg-based FinTech start-up TheMarketsTrust have been invited as speakers to the 3rd Annual Conference: The World of CoCos taking place in London this December.

Evangelos Papadopoulos and Dr. Krassimir Kostadinov, the respective CEO and Research&Development Director of TheMarketsTrust, will join the conference which will be offering an impressive panel featuring a special lecture from the Governor of the National Bank of Belgium, Jan Smets, as well as speakers from leading financial institutions such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of England. The conference will be held at the residence of the Blegium Ambassador in the English capital city on 10 December 2015.

The conference will assemble regulators, issuers, rating agencies, investors, data-providers and risk managers to discuss the latest developments and the future of contingent convertible bonds (CoCos). These are hybrid securities issued by banks which currently attract a rush from investors due to their hish yield capacity, typically over 7%. Over the last 6 years, more than 170 banks have issued this type of bond with a total outstanding amount of over USD 150 billion, growing at a rate of 15% annually and making CoCos the fatest-growing securities in the global bond market.

What started out as being sceptically regarded as niche product markets by finance experts have now developed into considered viable solutions to address capital gaps faced by many European banks. They may be used in the near future to recapitalise Greek banks, persuant to Greece's recently approved recapitalisation bill.

"CoCos have the potential to strengthen the resilience of the banking system while satisfying regulatory capital requirements and thereby preventing future bank bail-outs with taxpayers' money," commented Evangelos Papadopoulos, CEO of TheMarketsTrust. "But they are a black box to investors, pretty much like the subprime market before the 2007 crisis."

According to TheMarketsTrust, the market has lost confidence in the established rating agencies which have consistently and significantly failed during the latest rate environment, major institutional investors, like pension funds, have avoided these instruments due to the complexity implied in their risk management. TheMarketsTrust helps solve this challenge through a 100% data-driven credit rating assessment, independent valuation and real-time risk analysis in a state-of-the-art risk engine platform - 'The Leopard Station'.

"The invitation to be part of such a reputed conference is a recognition of our commitment to be the European experts in the field of hybrid securities valuations and credit ratings," added Evangelos Papadopoulos.

The start-up was founded by Evangelos Papadopoulos and Frédéric Le Dinahet during their eMBAS in Harvard and was incorporated in Luxembourg last year- TheMarketsTrust has since received positive market feedback, selected as a finalist for the UBS 'Future of Finance Challenge' and the BBVA 'Open Talent 2015' initiative last month, as well as being chosen and accepted in the first phase of the SME Horizon 2020 EU programme.

 

Photo by TheMarketsTrust (Evangelos Papadopoulos and Dr. Krassimir Kostadinov)