Thousands of mortgage and secondary market professionals are set to descend on New York City this weekend as the industry gathers for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference 2015.

According to the MBA, the conference is designed for industry leaders and decision makers from residential and capital markets, including CEOs and senior-level executives, mortgage investors, investment bankers, rating agency professionals, risk managers, mortgage lenders, mortgage insurers, federal home loan bank members, regulators, real estate investment trusts, wholesale, correspondent and retail production executives, mortgage-backed securities investors, buyers and sellers of distressed assets, mortgage brokers and warehouse lenders.

The conference, taking place this year at the Marriott Marquis, features legendary NBC newsman Tom Brokaw as the keynote speaker. Brokaw will take the stage Monday morning with David Stevens, the president and chief executive officer of the MBA.

Last year, Stevens set off a firestorm with his remarks on minority borrowers. Soon after opening the conference last year, a Twitter war developed between Stevens and Josh Rosner, a well-known analyst at Graham, Fisher & Co. HousingWire publisher Paul Jackson recapped the Twitter war here.

Stevens also said last year that the government’s position in the housing industry hadn’t changed in four years.

“Here’s the problem. It is four years later and the government isn’t still just the backbone, but has become the entire central nervous system of the real estate finance market, Stevens said last year. “When the federal government is still backing nearly 90% of the mortgages made in today’s market, it’s apparent that the real estate finance system is stuck in the same place it was when I took this stage four years ago.”

Stevens is set to address the crowd at MBA Secondary at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Monday.

Other speakers of note include Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s senior vice president and chief economist; Leonard Kiefer, Freddie Mac’s deputy chief economist; Ted Tozer, the president of Ginnie Mae; and Benjamin Lawsky, the superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services.

In its conference literature, the MBA said that the conference will feature discussions on the “hottest topics” in the second market, including:

• Single-security platform: Hear from the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the GSEs on the latest details, including transition/exchange protocol for legacy securities, disclosures and other protocols

• Private-label securities: Gain insight into opportunities on the horizon, while balancing risk retention considerations

• MSR trends: Find out about shifts in buyer and seller behavior as rates change and the impact on valuation

• Business strategies: Explore the resurgence of correspondent lending, trends in execution from best efforts to mandatory and home loan bank execution, plus the latest on non-QM lending

HousingWire will have boots on the ground in New York City and will be reporting throughout the conference. Check back often for the latest from MBA Secondary.

Also, follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #Secondary15.