The workshop on Mortgage Based Securities was the second in a series of industry talks that Finance and Investment Club of IIM Calcutta is organizing this year. The previous workshop was conducted earlier this month by Dr L Sankar who is a Managing Director (Credit Quantitative Analysis group) at Citigroup, New York and an alumnus from IIM Calcutta. The workshop on Mortgage Based Securities (MBS) was conducted by Pritesh Ranjan who is a Practice Manager at the Corporate Strategy division of Ocwen Financial Solutions India, and one of the country’s leading experts on the topic.

Mortgage Based Securities(MBS) are one of the fastest growing fixed income instruments in US and Europe. The total dollar volume of MBS market now exceeds $2.7 trillion, making it more than 1 and a half times the size of the U.S. Treasury market.

Pritesh discussed Mortgage Securitization in detail starting from the basic concepts involved in securitization, key players involved, the way they are structured and methods of analysing and valuating them. He also explained the way such securities are modeled by financial analysts using the cash flow waterfall structure. The participants had an opportunity to actively participate in the workshop through various modeling exercises undertaken in the class.

More than one hundred participants attended this workshop and this included both first year and second year MBA students. The immense interest shown by the first year students was commendable. This and similar such future workshops will definitely help the first year students make an informed decision when placements for summer internship start in a few months time. The second year students were immensely excited to see practical application of theories they have learnt in class. For some second year students going on student exchange program to foreign universities in the fifth term, this workshop will help them in making up for the missed fifth term course on Securitization taken by Mr. Vinod Kothari ,who is a renowned specialist on this topic worldwide.

Future industry talks planned by the Finance and Investment club – IIM Calcutta are on Microfinancing and Mergers & Acquisitions.