Houlihan Lokey announced that David Wagner has joined the firm as a Senior Advisor for the Portfolio Valuation and Fund Advisory Services practice. Mr. Wagner will lead the firm’s newly established LIBOR Transition Advisory Services practice to assist clients on the multitude of issues arising from the impending cessation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and other interbank offered rates (IBORs), as well as their replacements.

Mr. Wagner brings to bear his deep expertise and market relationships on the issues of valuation and risk in this fundamental recasting of an asset manager’s exposures in both assets and liabilities. He has been a fixed income market practitioner for 29 years in roles ranging from underwriting and investment banking to structuring, marketing, and trading complex derivatives. Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, Mr. Wagner held several positions at the Royal Bank of Scotland, including serving on its U.S. management team, the Board of RBS Securities Inc., the Board of Tradeweb, and as the RBS representative to the Federal Reserve’s Alternative Reference Rates Committee (ARRC) from its inception in 2014 through 2018.  While on the ARRC, Mr. Wagner directly participated in the creation of the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) and selection of SOFR as the U.S. replacement for LIBOR and contributed to the Paced Transition Plan, which guides the industry as the cessation event approaches.

The impending changes to the IBOR landscape represent an unprecedented structural market change and will impact all of our clients with IBOR-based contracts. We are excited to provide expertise and quantitative analyses to accelerate and enhance our clients’ individual transition needs.