Areas of Focus
- High Yield municipal bond market, including sector observations in senior living, charter schools, project finance, land secured credits, higher education, and challenged governmental credits
- General themes in municipal high yield
- Outlooks following a municipal bond underperformance or default
- Municipal sector outlooks on investment grade credits, including state and local governments; public and charter schools; health care; higher education; housing; sales tax; and essential purpose revenue bonds such as water and sewer
- Municipal bond market themes relating to sector outlooks and individual transaction credit quality
About Yaffa Rattner
Yaffa Rattner joined HilltopSecurities in 2021 as Senior Managing Director and Head of Municipal Credit. Rattner serves as the chair of the firm’s underwriting and credit committee and works collaboratively with banking teams and diverse investor groups to create unique capital funding solutions that enhance security structure to maximize investor and issuer outcomes. Rattner has expertise in the high yield sector including senior living, charter schools, and special districts. Prior to joining Hilltop, Rattner spent 13 years as Managing Director and Head of Municipal Credit at Piper Sandler and 12 years at Moody’s Investor Service where she was Senior Vice President, Senior Rating Committee member, and Manager of a credit team. In 2021, Rattner was elected to Smith’s Research and Gradings’ Municipal Analysts’ All Star Team for the fifth consecutive year. Rattner holds a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College of Columbia University and a master’s degree with a concentration in Public Finance from Columbia University.
