Bridget Rosewell was a signatory to a letter published on the front page of The Sunday Times on 14th February 2010. Signed by 20 leading economists, the letter argued that a stringent plan was needed to bring down the structural deficit with spending cuts. Read the letter here. The Times article can be found here.

The article produced intense debate, triggering reaction from economists, politicians and media; this included detailed television debate in which Bridget often featured as the spokesperson for the original letter. As well as commenting on BBC News, Bridget took part in a debate featured on Channel 4 evening news. Watch the excerpt...

Current approaches to understanding the relationships between economic factors and risk on Buy-to-Let portfolios have been found wanting over the course of the credit crunch.  With lenders considering moving back into the asset class, crucial questions linger particularly about how things may play out if interest rates begin to rise. 

Matt Salisbury and Anna Montvai put forward an approach that relates changes in economic factors such as house prices, rents, interest rates and unemployment to BtL risk. The approach has a wide range of applications, including management information, provisioning, collections and recoveries strategy, capital calculation, stress testing and scenario analysis.   Read the article here.

On 24th February Greg Wiltshire presented at Infoline's Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Risk Management Conference, discussing the response of banks to the crisis, how the market may develop in future and how Volterra could help banks and investors manage the risk on their portfolios.

The event was particularly useful as a forum to share ideas and methodologies as well as to discuss the hurdles to effective and efficient commercial real estate modeling, with the FSA, IPD and major banks in attendance. If you have an interest in bringing CRE modeling into your organisation please contact Greg.

"Having joined Volterra as a consultant in December, I am happy to report that the first few months have been most rewarding. The great thing about working in a small and growing team is that you are given responsibility early on; before long I was involved with my first project in financial services, and am currently focussing on planning and development projects, mainly the role of transport in improving economic opportunities.

The aspect I most enjoy is constantly being exposed to new challenges and problems. Combined with friendly and supportive colleagues I have achieved more than I thought possible in such a short space of time, and feel inspired and privileged to be working alongside the country's top economists."