Please join us for a panel discussion among RiskMetrics Group’s experts in the fields of accounting, corporate governance and risk management on the impact of the credit market and what investors can expect in the year ahead. To register for this webcast, click here.

What lessons have we learned from the turmoil of the credit markets – from accounting, corporate governance and risk management perspectives – and what can investors expect in 2008? The debate of the credit market’s impact on the days and months ahead is all the more meaningful with company writedowns, high-profile CEO departures, and failed hedge funds not entirely behind us. Just today, UBS announced a $10 billion writedown and Washington Mutual unveiled a plan to cut dividends, slash jobs and sell preferred stock to raise capital. It would only seem prudent to expect other imminent losses and reorganization plans from already liquidity-challenged banks and brokerages.

On top of the wave of bad news coming out of the subprime fallout, renewed volatility in the financial markets has put the future of the U.S. economy hanging in the balance, and as volatility persists, fears of a recession. While the Fed’s efforts of cutting rates has helped to relieve some of the stress in the money markets in the near-term, do conditions have to get worse before they get better?

Looking back on the trail of missteps of credit quality assignment, it is little wonder the market had very little liquidity in trading, even when times were good, thanks to the complexity of the subprime securities and the varying ratings that agencies assigned to them. If there was no trading in a security, no rating change, and no change in its indicative price, it would be easy to slip into the misconception that the security carries little risk. During the credit forum, Chris Finger, Head of Risk Management Research, will discuss insight into trading into illiquid securities and how a risk manager can do more than compute poor volatility estimates, such as mark-to-model approaches that seek to value and forecast risk given the specifics of individual securities.

Also on the call, Financials Analyst Zach Gast, will explain what loan and asset classes are most at risk, and if we will see loan loss reserves begin to build, as the credit cycle continues to deteriorate. On the governance front, in the brave new world of trading illiquid securities, few boards had standing committees charged with even tracking such risk. With several CEOs having lost their jobs as a result of the risky behavior in the sub-prime mess, will shareholders hold board members accountable at their annual meetings this spring? Special Counsel Pat McGurn will explore these and other questions on board accountability, such as pay programs.