ASF 2014 a Closed-Door Event

The American Securitization Forum plans to keep its annual industry event, hosted later this month at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, a private affair.

The trade group said no press will be allowed at the Jan. 26-29 conference.

This is in contrast to previous years, in which the ASF's embraced media coverage of this widely-attended get-together. 

ASF’s conference used to be one of the largest securitization events of the year. But now its going head-to head with the newly formed Structured Finance Industry Group’s (SFIG) conference, also scheduled in Las Vegas, Jan. 22-24.

SFIG’s conference, organized with Information Management Network, is on track to be the largest securitization event of 2014 with an anticipated 5000 attendees.

The conference is SFIG’s first multi-day, industry-wide event since it was formed by a group of the American Securitization Forum (ASF) defectors in March.  

It’s unclear how big ASF’s event will be or who will attend. A spokesperson at the ASF said today that “industry professionals” are signed up to attend and that an agenda is soon to follow.

Whether the agenda will remain as off-limits to the media as the conference itself remains unclear. The ASF's website, at any rate, has no real indication of what will actually transpire at the Aria between Jan. 26th and 29th.