Jody 
Shenn

 

20+ years at the heart of the global financial system and a public track record of delivering important and unique insights on key issues in the markets and economy

 

For more on Jody's work at Moody's (where he's been a senior analyst on securitizations, consumer credit, housing, Fintech/AI and other hot topics), Bloomberg (where he covered mortgages, MBS/CDOs and other issues at the center of the '07-09 global financial crisis and its clean-up as a prolific reporter), American Banker (where he warned of the coming crisis), The Wall Street Journal (for whom he wrote on stocks, sports and newsmakers, working for its nascent website amid a contested election, dotcom crash, 9/11, audit scandals and war) or elsewhere... see his LinkedIn, resume or below. 

 

Jody has a reputation for having a deep and often unparalleled understanding of a wide range of the most complicated topics, especially in financial markets, and particularly things related to mortgages and securitizations (or, nearly everything). He's explained such complex but crucial issues in various ways to people across Wall Street, Washington and worldwide. And, he's been known as consistently ahead of others on emerging opportunities and risks. 

 

At Moody's, he's been quoted by publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNBC, The Bond Buyer, National Mortgage News, Barron's, Business Insider and Asset Securitization Report. His journalism was cited by The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, NBC's Meet the Press, Columbia Journalism Review, Grant's Interest Rate Observer, DealBreaker's Matt Levine, Salon, ZeroHedge, Naked Capitialism, New York Observer, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and in courts, reports, papers (a dissertation), regulatory items and remarks by trade/consumer groups and officials. He did Bloomberg TV/radio with hosts like Tom Keene, Kathleen Hays, Carol Massar and Erik Schatzker. 

 

He's been an agenda-setting writer and an office "guru" or "nerd" on tricky nuances even in sophisticated environments. But, he's also down-to-earth and loyal, and always striving to make achieving goals enjoyable. Indeed, he's sought to lift up others more than anything and proven most valuable in teams, repeatedly featuring in award-winning group efforts beside journalists and credit analysts, and forging long relationships with colleagues and others, with acknowledgments or citations in books by top journalists and professionals, such as Mary Childs, Bob Ivry, Christine Richard, Joshua Rosner/Gretchen Morgenstern, William A. Frey and Janet M. Tavakoli.

I currently say I am a research leader delivering qualitative and quantitative insights on global structured finance and related industries and sectors, to both market participants and internal stakeholders across business lines and functions at a leading credit rating agency, formally a  "nationally recognized statistical rating organization," or NRSRO. This and the following is based on a combination of my public-facing work and general job functions, and doesn't speak to any potential publications or other work in the future. 

 

My core focus is structured finance, or "securitization." For those who don't know what that is: It's when you take specific expected cash flows, such as from a group of mortgage or auto loan payments, or payments from corporate loans, or commercial truck or tractor leases, or the plans used to buy iPhones over time, or timeshare-related fees, or chain places' franchise fees, or... almost anything, really. And... you trade the rights to those cash flows for bonds (or similar instruments.) And somebody else buys them. Typically, some of the bonds are set up to be safer and some are riskier. There's risk because the cash flows are "expected," and not guaranteed. (Or, if they are guaranteed, you may not be guaranteed to get them when you expect. Which can cause problems. Very big problems sometimes even. Or, your guarantor could have issues. Also potentially very big problem.)

 

This is similar to and different than many other things, such as asset-based loans/lending (ABLs), certain "private credit," closed end/money market funds, REITs, blockchain "tokenization," and the financing for the Louisiana Purchase, as well as companies and/or banks in general. Can explain if you need. 

 

My main focus is on US consumer-related securitizations, where the collateral payments are coming from individuals or households. But I also spend a lot of time on corporate (sometimes known as structured credit) and global/non-US securitization topics.

 

Just a few of the projects that I've been happy about at my current job include helping to launch and/or then being a key contributor for all of: our Changing State of the US Consumer webinar series and State of the US Consumer quarterly research publications (which spawned global companions); regular cross-sector US Housing and Housing Finance webinars and conferences; and US and global housing forecasts and reports; our "Moody's Talks..."/"Securitization Spotlight" podcasts; and our "Chart of the Week" and revamped weekly structured finance publication. You can often hear/see/read me as a speaker, moderator, author or co-author with these. But I've been just as happy working in the background to support the work of others when standing up or otherwise facilitating these initiatives.

 

I've also been proud again of my work across crises, and contributions on key topics including around: the COVID-19 pandemic, government responses and market reactions; the banking crisis deepened by 2023 deposit runs; the phasing out of the Libor interest rate benchmarks; the 2017 US tax legislation; ongoing CLO/leverage finance documentation issues; potential effects of climate change on US housing; and the various intersections of technology and finance, such as: Fintechs, including lending and payments; blockchains and distributed ledgers; e-mortgages and other digitalization; machine learning and Gen AI; buy now/pay later (BNPL), mobile device financing, solar and other emerging financing; and alternative/nontraditional or "Big" data. I've both helped to shape our views on these topics via participation in standing working groups and specific project groups around research and events, as well as have been trusted to communicate house views to market participants, journalists and other stakeholders and their representatives.  

 

Some other things I say about what I do:

 

➔ Cover ABS, RMBS, CLOs, CMBS and ABCP topics and adjacent issues, with US-focus but also global responsibilities. Employ a range of analytical approaches in assessing issues relevant to credit and fixed income markets, calling on a rare combination of fundamental, quantitative, structural, macroeconomic, market, accounting, industry, operational, and regulatory/legal/contractual lenses.

 

➔ Wide subject and industry expertise, with strong reputation on securitization/asset-based finance, housing/mortgages, consumer credit, Gen AI/blockchain/innovation, leverage finance/CLOs, and CRE/multifamily. High readership, net promoter scores and value assigned to external publications and events (e.g., reports, podcasts, webinars, infographics, videos, roundtables and conferences).

 

➔ Key participant in: Moody’s US housing and housing finance group and Moody’s Ratings global housing forecasts; North American research and policy group; US consumer and education working group including student loan issues); Gen AI working groups, and other past groups (e.g., banking stress, Libor, Fintech, US tax reform, and global COVID 19-related forbearance/modification policies.).

 

➔ Broad collaborator, working regularly with corporate finance (e.g., REITs, builders, business services, and payment firms), public finance (muni issuers, HFAs), leverage finance (high yield issuers, covenants), financial institutions (banks, insurers, non-bank lenders, Fintech/BNPL/digital finance, GSEs), economist and specialist (e.g., ESG and blockchain/distributed ledger/digital asset) teams, and Europe and Asia-Pacific securitization and covered bond groups.

 

➔ Contribute to research product suite strategy, oversight and management; work, within compliance guardrails, with outreach/events, legal/compliance, tech/production, comms/corporate and non-NRSRO analyst teams; have participated in event management and partnership explorations.

 

 

As a financial analyst and journalist tackling sensitive and globally important issues, Jody hopes he's proven his approach to be thoughtful, thorough, in good faith and without bias to a large spectrum of individuals with differing interests and diverse worldviews, using his extreme work ethic and directness as needed. A graduate of Cornell University with an English degree (with courses including investment theory and honors physics with Brian Greene, and a London semester), he connects with all sorts of people, and has learned high level academic and practical theory in many challenging fields via extensive reading, experiences and chats across seniority ranks and job types.