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Good morning. I’m Randy Snook, executive vice president, of business policy and practices at SIFMA. It is my pleasure to welcome you to our annual Insurance and Risk-Linked Securities Conference. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors for their generous support. We have some very loyal repeat sponsors and we are grateful. We are also pleased to have several new sponsors join this year.
It has been an eventful 12 months since we last met to discuss the state of this industry. Here in the Northeast, the region is still fighting back from the destructive impact of Super Storm Sandy. Despite events that tested the market this year, demand for insurance and risk linked products is incredibly strong as evidenced by the continued narrowing of spreads. As attractive pricing draws issuers to the market, we are confident in the potential of the expanding investor base to support the market and propel further growth.
SIFMA recognizes the vital role of insurance and risk linked products, and we are committed to providing a forum for all stakeholders to come together and discuss the state of the industry and to identify challenges, solutions and opportunities.
Recently, my colleague Sean Davy has been working with our members on the conundrum of the CFTC commodity pool regulation. We are continuing to push for exemptive relief for those subject to potential designation as a commodity pool. We remain hopeful that the CFTC may provide some relief from the registration and reporting requirements for commodity pool operators. Many of you are involved in those discussions and I would be remiss if I did not expressly thank you for your involvement and also thank the teams at Sidley Austin and Cadwalader for assisting in those key efforts.
Looking forward, regulatory uncertainty is a significant area of focus for SIFMA. Game changing regulation such as the Dodd-Frank Act, if not properly implemented, could stifle our markets and the ability to innovate in products such as insurance and risk-linked securities.
It is critical that the industry and regulators work together to ensure we have rules in place that make sense in today’s marketplace. We have to get it right.
SIFMA is pleased to hold this prominent industry event and to work with all of you to ensure the viability and growth of this important market. We have a record crowd with us here today and I think that speaks volumes on the progress we are all making.
So once again thank you for joining us. It is now my pleasure to introduce Paul Schultz, CEO of Aon Benfield Securities and the chairman of today’s event, who will officially kick of today’s meeting. Paul, thank you for your invaluable contributions to SIFMA and the Insurance- and RiskLinked Securities Conference. We’re so glad you could be here with us today. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Paul Schultz.
