NERA Economic Consulting

christopher.laursen@nera.com
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Education

MBA, with a concentration in finance, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
BA in finance, University of Miami

Experience

Mr. Laursen, a Vice President in NERA's Securities and Finance Practice, is a leading expert in financial products and markets, risk management, and financial regulation. He has served as an expert witness in numerous litigation matters and has provided consulting and advisory services for various public and private sector clients. Mr. Laursen's engagements have included work in the areas of structured finance, structured products, corporate finance, derivative contracts, private equity, hedge funds, mutual funds, and systemic risk.

Prior to joining NERA in 2009, Mr. Laursen served as Manager of Risk Policy and Guidance for the Supervision and Regulation Division of the Federal Reserve Board. In that role, he was responsible for the development and interpretation of all risk-oriented directives issued to Federal Reserve-supervised institutions and Federal Reserve examiners. He also worked closely with other domestic financial supervisors including the SEC, FDIC, and OCC to craft US interagency regulations. As a member of the Basel Committee's Trading Book Group, Mr. Laursen was a key developer of new international risk management and capital standards for financial products. Additionally, as an examiner for both the Federal Reserve System and the OCC, Mr. Laursen accumulated over a decade of direct experience assessing financial company risk and compliance with laws and regulations.

Mr. Laursen was heavily involved in the Federal Reserve's response to the financial crisis beginning in 2007. He reported directly to Chairman Bernanke as well as other Federal Reserve Governors and Reserve Bank Presidents on a number of key issues. During the crisis, he led reviews of problem institutions and assisted in the development of special Federal Reserve programs and actions designed to reduce market turmoil and economic damage. Mr. Laursen authored the Federal Reserve's Supervision and Regulation Letter 09-01 issued in January 2009, which updated requirements with respect to financial product stress testing, value-at-risk (VaR) measurement, and position valuation. Upon request in 2010, Mr. Laursen assisted the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in its efforts to determine and report on causes of the financial crisis.

Mr. Laursen currently serves as an advisory board member of the Professional Risk Managers' International Association's (PRMIA) Washington, DC Chapter, and as a member of PRMIA's global training committee.