Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism (SDRM) Conference


Washington, DC, January 22, 2003
International Monetary Fund
Meeting Halls A and B

The IMF hosted a conference on the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism (SDRM) on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 in Washington, DC. Representatives from the financial sector, the official community, civil society and academia were invited to exchange views on the specific design features of the SDRM. With the benefit of extensive dialogue with private sector participants, workout specialists, and academics, the IMF staff has written a new paper that describes the design features of the new proposal. The conference was a step toward responding to the request from the International Monetary and Financial Committee that the IMF develop a concrete proposal for an SDRM for consideration at its next meeting in the Spring.

Agenda

8:00 a.m.

Registration

8:40 a.m.

Welcome and Introductory Remarks:
Mr. Horst Köhler (Managing Director, IMF)
9:00 a.m.

Keynote address: Mr. R. Glenn Hubbard (Chairman of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers)

9:30 a.m. -10:45 a.m.

Session 1: What is the Problem?

Chair: Mr. J. Onno de Beaufort Wijnholds (Permanent Representative of the European Central Bank at the IMF)
 

Speakers: Mr. Kenneth Rogoff (Economic Counselor and Director, Research Department, IMF) Emerging Market Debt. What is the Problem?
 

Mr. Randal Quarles (Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for International Affairs)
 

Mr. Thomas Palley (Director, Open Society Institute) Sovereign Debt Restructuring: What is the Problem? (PDF 71kb)
 

Mr. Patrick Bolton (Professor, Princeton University)

10:45 a.m.

Coffee

11:00a.m. -
1:00 p.m.

Session 2: The Context and Content of the SDRM

 

Chair: Mr. Gerd Häusler (Counselor and Director, International Capital Markets Department, IMF)
 

Speakers: Mr. Timothy Geithner (Director, Policy Development and Review Department, IMF)

 

Mr. Matthew Fisher (Assistant Director, Policy Development and Review Department, IMF)

 

Mr. Sean Hagan (Assistant General Counsel, IMF)
 

Mr. Mark Siegel (Managing Director, David L. Babson & Company Inc.)
 

Mr. Richard Gitlin (President, Gitlin & Company)
 

Mr. Agustín Carstens (Deputy Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Mexico)

1:00 p.m.

Lunch hosted by Mr. Horst Köhler
(by invitation only)
IMF Gallery

2:00 p.m. -
3:45 p.m.

Session 3: The Role of Creditors and the Fund under the SDRM; implications for the impact on capital markets
 

Chair: Mr. François Gianviti (General Counsel, IMF)
 

Speakers: Mr. Donald Bernstein (Partner, Davis, Polk & Wardwell)
 

Mr. Mark Allen (Deputy Director, Policy Development and Review Department, IMF)

 

Mr. Andrew Yianni (Partner, Clifford Chance)

 

Mr. Lee Buchheit (Partner, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton)

3:45 p.m.

Coffee

4:00 p.m. -
5:30 p.m.

Session 4: Ensuring Integrity in the Process: Verification, Dispute Resolution, and Sanctions
 

Chair: Mr. Jonathan Fried (Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Finance, Canada)
 

Speakers: Mr. François Gianviti (General Counsel, IMF)

 

Judge Burton R. Lifland (Chief Judge, US Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York)
 

Mr. Jernej Sekolec (Secretary, UN Commission on International Trade Law)

5:30 p.m. -
7:00 p.m.

Economic Forum*: A New Approach to Sovereign Debt Restructuring: An IMF Proposal
 

Chair: Ms. Anne O. Krueger (First Deputy Managing Director, IMF)
 

Panelists: Mr. Jack Boorman (Special Advisor to the Managing Director, IMF)
 

Ms. Stéphane Pallez (Vice-Chairperson Paris Club)
 

Mr. Agustín Carstens (Deputy Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Mexico)
 

Ms. Ann Pettifor (Programme Coordinator, Jubilee Research)
 

Mr. Barry Herman (Chief, Finance & Development Branch, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UN)
*  Open to the public, Auditorium R-710.