Sovereign Credit Ratings: Process & Practice
Sun, 23 October, 2022
8:00am - 10:00am
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2022
8:00 - 10:00 am ET
City View Room, 7th Floor
Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20052
Sovereign Credit Ratings have served as a baseline for international institutional investors in determining their allocation of capital across a spectrum of countries in the developed and emerging markets. However, rating methodologies and process are not always well-known and understood, and the approaches of rating agencies in assessing sovereign credit risk have been challenged, particularly in frontier markets.
The Institute for International Economic Policy, along with partners Citi and Moody's Rating, is pleased to invite you to Sovereign Credit Ratings: Process & Practice. The event will feature a live simulation demonstrating the sovereign ratings process, followed by an engaging and enriching panel discussion with key stakeholders across the investment community: issuers, investors, rating agencies and the public sector. Our esteemed panelists will explore the role played by ratings, as well as the responsibilities of the rating agencies. Join us for this exciting event on Wednesday, October 23rd from 8:00 to 10:00 am ET, held in the City View Room (7th Floor) at the Elliott School of International Affairs. Refreshments will be served.
The panelists include:
- Tara Sinclair (Moderator): Professor of Economics and International Affairs and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomics at U.S. Treasury
- Hanan Amin-Salem: Sovereign Ratings Advisory, Citi
- Marie Diron: Global Managing Director, Sovereign & Sub-Sovereign Risk Group, Moody's Ratings
- Patience Oniha: Director General, Debt Management Office, Federal Government of Nigeria
- Sonia Essobmadje: Macroeconomic Policy and Governance Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
- Unoma Okolo: Portfolio Manager, EMsights Capital Group
This event is co-sponsored by Citi, Moody's Rating, the Elliott School of International Affairs, and the Institute for International Economic Policy.
About the Speakers |
Tara Sinclair is a macroeconomist and Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the George Washington University, where she also serves as director of the GW Center for Economic Research. Her research focuses on economic forecasting and produces models, explanations and predictions of macroeconomic fluctuations and trends. Sinclair uses her research to connect economic principles with real-world concerns, developing data sources and tools that policymakers can use in their decision-making. Additionally, she is a sought-after public speaker who regularly consults with public officials, business leaders, and the press on issues related to business cycles, labor market dynamics, forecasting, big data, and macroeconomic policy.
Sinclair formerly served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomics in the Office of Economic Policy at the Department of Treasury, where she worked closely with Secretary Janet Yellen and was responsible for the Treasury’s domestic macroeconomic outlook. Prior to joining the Treasury Department, Sinclair was a senior fellow and former chief economist at job search site Indeed. She founded the Indeed Hiring Lab, the research arm of the world's #1 job site, and developed original research using Indeed data on labor markets around the world. She previously served as a Special Government Employee (SGE) member of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Technical Advisory Committee (BLSTAC) and was a visiting scholar at the St. Louis Federal Reserve, a visiting associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and a consultant at the World Bank. She earned a BA in Foreign Languages from Wheaton College and worked as a commercial real estate appraiser in Chicago before pursuing an MA and PhD in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis.
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Hanan Amin-Salem is the Managing Director and Global Head of Sovereign Advisory at Citi, where she advises sovereign clients on rating agency relationships, investor outreach, and debt and financing strategies. She served as First Deputy Minister of Finance in Egypt from 2014 to 2016 and played a critical role in redefining the nation's microeconomic policy framework and managing the Ministry’s relationship with the IMF, World Bank, among other international financial institutions (IFIs).
She began her career as a senior analyst for Moody's Sovereign Risk Unit, before serving roles at JPMorganChase, PFC Energy and IHS Markit. Amin-Salem has published several papers, chapters and books on Egypt's economic development, exploring the nation's strategies to stabilize the economy and achieve inclusive, sustainable growth through institutional and policy reform. She attended the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and earned her Master's in Economic Development from Columbia University.
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Marie Diron is the global head of Moody’s Sovereign and Sub-Sovereign Risk Group; in this role, she is responsible for credit ratings on countries, regional and local governments, public sector entities and multilateral development banks. She is also the lead coordinator on ESG monitoring and integration across asset classes for Moody’s Investors Service. Throughout her years at Moody's, she served as the lead sovereign analyst for various Asia Pacific credits including Australia, China, India; managed the Asia Pacific sovereign team; and coordinated Moody’s Global Macro Outlook and other credit research.
Diron was previously Director at Oxford Economics, leading the company’s forecasting and scenario analysis service to financial sector and corporate clients, after a number of years at the European Central Bank and Brevan Howard LLP. She received a MPhil in Economics from the University of Cambridge and graduated from the Ecole Centrale Paris.
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Patience Oniha was appointed Director-General of Nigeria's Debt Management Office (DMO) in July 2017. She joined the DMO in 2008 as the Director of the Market Development Department and spearheaded a number of initiatives to promote, support and finance Nigeria's growth and sustainable development. Oniha headed the Efficiency Unit at the Federal Ministry of Finance before returning to the DMO in her current position in 2017.
She began her career in the private sector at Icon Limited Merchant Bankers in 1986 and held several positions at First Securities Discount House Limited (now FSDH Merchant Bank Ltd.), Ecobank Nigeria Limited and Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Ltd. Ohina earned her Bachelor's in Economics from the University of Benin and her Master's in Finance from the University of Lagos. She became a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria in 2008, having been a member since 1990; she is also an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.
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Sonia Essobmadje leads the Finance and Domestic Resource Mobilization Section in the Macroeconomic Policy and Governance Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. In this role, Essobmadje supports the deepening of the financing architecture and the development of capital markets to increase savings and investments pools, as well as mobilize more capital. Prior to joining the UN, she was an investment banker for nearly 15 years at Societe Generale, where she gained extensive experience in financing solutions, capital markets, and sustainable and impact finance.
Essobmadje holds a Master's in Trading and Asset Management from ESLSCA Business School in Paris, as well as a Master's in Corporate Finance from California State University and the University of Cergy Pontoise. She has been a CFA charter holder since 2017.
Unoma Okolo , is a portfolio manager with the Artisan Partners EMsights Capital Group, where she is responsible for idea generation and investment coverage for Asia and parts of sub-Saharan Africa. She began her career at Fidelity Investments as part of their business associate rotational program and worked as a sovereign research analyst, concentrating on sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, until she joined Artisan Partners in 2022.
Okolo grew up in West Africa and spent her formative years in Nigeria and Togo before obtaining her bachelor’s in Economics from Stanford University, during which she spent a semester studying at East China Normal University in Shanghai, China.
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