SEC Credit Ratings Office Expert Program Support

SOURCES SOUGHT/ REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ANNOUNCEMENT - This notice has been amended to change Required Capabilities paragraph 1 and to extend the response due date to NLT 4:00pm on June 2, 2017. All other information contained remains unchanged. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking sources and information for Credit Ratings Office Expert Program Support CONTRACTING OFFICE ADDRESS: Office of Acquisitions/Operations Branch 100 F Street, NE Washington, DC 20549 INTRODUCTION: This is a SOURCES SOUGHT TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION to determine the availability and technical capability of large businesses and small businesses (including the following subsets, Small Disadvantaged Businesses, HUBZone Firms; Certified 8(a), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses and Woman Owned Small Business) to provide the required services. The Division of Economic Risk and Analysis (DERA) and the Office of Credit Ratings (OCR) are seeking information for potential sources qualified and capable of successfully executing program objectives listed below. DISCLAIMER: THIS SOURCES SOUGHT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION AND SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. RESPONSES IN ANY FORM ARE NOT OFFERS AND THE GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR PREPARATION OF RESPONSES TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THIS TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY. REQUIRED CAPABILITIES: The Government requires Credit Ratings Office Expert Program support to reach the objectives listed below: 1. Obtain Credit Ratings Subject Matter Expert(s) (Experts) with the academic expertise to establish and support the implementation of a quantitatively-driven, credit ratings analysis program. The team of experts shall consist of at least one (1) candidate(s) with required expertise. The expert shall identify the number of years of experience the candidate(s) has/have to meet the qualifications below: - Excellent academic and professional qualifications, preferably recognized as an industry expert as evidenced by publication, industry acknowledgement, or academic recognition. - Seasoned background in the credit rating industry experience with credit analysis and rating agency exposure. - Well informed of the current industry, market, and trends to be able to identify and anticipate changes. - Strong quantitative and technical skills. - Independent professional with no employment or business relationship with a Credit Rating Agency within the last three (3) years. - Excellent written and oral communications skills. - Defined experience as a facilitator and collaborator in academic and professional environments. - Academic and industry recognized skills and achievements in leadership, market vision, innovation, and leveraging technology to solve complex problems. 2. The Experts will collaborate with DERA and OCR to develop a business plan with an identified management analytical framework and significant milestones. 3. Initial efforts will constitute the building and architecting with a focus on defining and standing up the program, staffing and role definition, knowledge management, and initial funding decisions. 4. Follow-on focus will comprise the initial introduction of the Analytical Data Evaluation Unit commonly referred to as the "Data Unit". a. The Experts will work with the Data Unit to develop a broad risk identification program that will identify data, leverage modeling expertise, and rely on analytics to achieve the following: i. Establish infrastructure and develop an analytical framework for utilizing data and quantitative analyses to identify potential areas for further inquiry. ii. Apply models and methodologies that are tested and supported by research, are traceable, repeatable and reliable over time to improve overall data analysis and forecasting. Specific application areas include: a) Develop metrics of ratings quality and informativeness. Such metrics might depend, among other measures, on measures of rating agency conflict of interest (e.g., based on relationships between rating agencies and underwriters), rating agencies disagreement ("split ratings"), text analysis of ratings reports, securities characteristics (e.g., deal complexity for ABS), measures of competitiveness of rating industry in a specific sector, and market response to ratings (e.g., whether market yields are consistent with yields of other securities with similar ratings). b) Develop metrics of ratings inflation at the levels of rating agency, asset class, industry sector, and other groupings. Such metrics might rely, among other things, on reverse engineering of rating models. c) Develop metrics of deterioration of credit conditions in specific asset classes, industry sectors, and other groupings ("early warning"). Such analysis might include, among other things, cluster analysis of yield changes, ratings changes and rating watches and presentation of the ratings dynamics as "heat maps". d) Contribute other data driven and research supported applications in the credit ratings risk identification and fraud detection area. iii. The Experts will ensure a multi-step review process, where ideas are exchanged with SEC staff through (at a minimum) monthly calls and meetings and (at least) one quarterly meeting held in-person in the SEC's office in New York or Washington, DC. iv. Develop data analysis and methodologies and supportable code to implement risk identification. The data analysis will rely on both regulatory and commercial data, with stronger emphasis on the former. The code should be written in one of programming languages widely used in DERA (e.g., R, SAS, Stata, or Matlab; to be jointly determined by DERA and the Experts). v. Leverage both the body of academic literature and professional expertise in quantitatively analyzing credit ratings developed through researching credit rating agencies and the credit rating industry, to better understand when a deeper analysis of a rating may be warranted. (OBJECTIVES END) SOURCES SOUGHT: This Sources Sought Synopsis is requesting responses to the following criteria ONLY from large and small businesses that are both capable and qualified to provide the required services. To assist the SEC in making a determination regarding the level of participation all businesses in any subsequent procurement that may result from this Request for Information/ Sources Sought. The response shall be inclusive of how the respondents corporate capabilities align to meet the specific objectives specified in this announcement. The SEC may or may not conduct follow-on market research via one-on-one outreach sessions with respondents that clearly demonstrate their ability to reach program objectives. SUBMISSION DETAILS: Responses must include: 1) Business name and address; 2) Name of company representative and their business title; 3) Business Size; 4) Cage Code and DUNS; 5) Contract vehicles that would be available to the Government for the procurement of the product and service, to General Service Administration (GSA), GSA MOBIS, NIH, NASA SEWP, Federal Supply Schedules (FSS), or any other Government Agency contract vehicle. (This information is for market research only and does not preclude your company from responding to this notice.) Vendors who wish to respond to this should send responses via email NLT 4:00 PM Eastern Time on June 2, 2017 to Mr. Robert Witherspoon @ WitherspoonR@sec.gov and Ms. D'Jaris Gladden @ GladdenD@sec.gov. Interested businesses should submit a brief capabilities statement package (no more than 15 pages) demonstrating ability to perform the services listed in this Technical Description. Proprietary information and trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials. All information received that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. All government and contractor personal reviewing sources sought responses will have signed non-disclosure agreements and understand their responsibility for proper use and protection from unauthorized disclosure of proprietary information as described 41 USC 423. The Government shall not be held liable for any damages incurred if proprietary information is not properly identified.