The Credit Conversation
The Epic Story of Bonds - and the Next Chapter of Credit
Eight centuries of debt. One market that built the modern world.
Long dismissed as the "boring" corner of finance, the bond market has quietly funded the modern world - from the canals of medieval Venice to today's AI data centers. It is now larger than the stock market, rivals the global banking system in influence, and is once again reshaping itself before our eyes.
This edition of the Credit Conversation brings that story to life. Dr. Atsi Sheth, Chief Credit Officer at Moody's Ratings, sits down with Robin Wigglesworth, the Financial Times' global finance correspondent and author of A Fabulous Debt: The Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World - his sweeping new history of the bond market, published this September.
Together, they will explore what eight hundred years of credit history reveals about the decade ahead: how capital markets absorb shocks and reinvent themselves, how the boundaries between public and private credit are being redrawn, and the role independent credit opinions have played - for more than a century - in making the world's largest market legible to investors.
The conversation also marks a milestone closer to home: ten years of the Credit Strategy & Standards team at Moody's Ratings - a decade spent connecting credit analysis across sectors, geographies and asset classes to help markets see around corners.
The session will open with a moderated conversation, followed by extended discussion with participants, creating space for direct exchange among the group.
A drinks reception - and signed copies of A Fabulous Debt - will follow.
Agenda
Welcome
Opening Remarks
A decade of Credit Strategy & Standards
Fireside Chat
Atsi Sheth in conversation with Robin Wigglesworth
Audience Q&A
Cocktail Reception & Book Signing
Speakers
Michael West
Chief Executive Officer
Moody's Ratings
Dr. Atsi Sheth
Chief Credit Officer, Head of Credit Strategy & Standards
Moody's Ratings
Robin Wigglesworth
Alphaville Editor
Venue
Moody's Offices | 7 WTC, 52nd Floor
New York
NY
United States
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Mr. West has served as President of Moody’s Ratings since November 2019. Mike served as Managing Director—Head of MIS Ratings and Research from June 2016 to October 2019. Previously, Mike served as Managing Director—Head of Global Structured Finance from February 2014 to May 2016 and Managing Director—Head of Global Corporate Finance from January 2010 to January 2014. Earlier in his career, Mike was also responsible for the research strategy for the ratings businesses and before that led Corporate Finance for the EMEA Region, European Corporates and the EMEA leveraged finance business. Prior to joining Moody’s in 1998, Mike worked at Bank of America and HSBC in various credit roles.
Atsi Sheth is Chief Credit Officer and Head of Credit Strategy & Standards at Moody's Ratings.
Prior to her appointment in 2024, she held several leadership roles at Moody's, including Managing Director and Global Head of Credit Strategy and Research from 2021 to 2024.
She also served as Managing Director, Chief Credit Officer for the Americas from 2018 to 2021, and Managing Director, Sovereign Risk Group from 2016 to 2018.
Atsi is a long-time champion of Moody's Community Impact and Inclusion initiatives. She serves on the Board of Moody's Foundation and was the Executive Sponsor of the Pan Asian Impact Business Resource Group.
Earlier in her career, Atsi was the Chief Economist at Reliance Capital and taught courses on International Political Economy and Emerging Markets at Columbia University and Northwestern University.
Atsi has a PhD from Northwestern University and a B.A. from Bombay University.
Robin Wigglesworth is the editor of Alphaville, the FT's financial blog. From Oslo, Norway he leads a team of three other writers in London and New York that dig into anything deeply nerdy or plain delightful that they spot in markets, business or the global economy.
Previously, Robin was the FT's global finance correspondent, US markets editor, deputy head of fastFT, capital markets correspondent, and Gulf correspondent. He joined the FT from Bloomberg News in 2008, where he covered Nordic economics.
He is also the author of Trillions, a book on the past, present and future of passive investing and how it is reshaping financial markets, published by Penguin Random House in 2021.