Career moves

Knight Capital Group has appointed a director of institutional credit sales responsible for selling bank loans and high yield bonds to large European investors.

The Collingwood Group acquired GWN Consulting, which is a firm specializing in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Ginnie Mae risk management and quality control.

The need for private capital to return to mortgage financing is a major discussion point in the future of U.S. housing. REITs are an ideal vehicle for bringing in that private capital. However, before this can occur, a couple of things need to happen, said Calvin Schnure, a mortgage market economist at the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT).

Americans who are able to buy homes are putting down payments of more than 12% on average, a survey from mortgage lead generator LendingTree found this month.

Mickael Le Gargasson, Societe Generale’s director of acquisition and leveraged finance for the Asia Pacific region has left the firm, according to reports.

Hannover Re Group executive board member Wolf Becke will retiring after 20 years of serving on the board.

Morrison & Foerster has been appointed as legal counsel for the European DataWarehouse (ED), the Eurosystem-endorsed data repository that will facilitate the storage and dissemination of ABS loan-level data.

Morgan Stanley said Tuesday in a filing that more than a third of the 1,600 layoffs it announced earlier this month may be in New York City.

Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has one of the toughest jobs in town.

Reed Smith has hired Tamara Box as head of structured finance. The new hire joins the firm's London office as a partner in the financial industry group (FIG). Box was previously the head of international structured finance at Berwin Leighton Paisner.

The American Securitization Forum (ASF) will have California Congressman Ed Royce and Arizona Congressman David Schweikert as keynote speakers at its ASF 2012.

Daniel Mudd, the former Fannie Mae CEO who is the subject of a new, massive Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fraud suit, announced Wednesday morning that he is taking a leave of absence from his current employer, Fortress Investment Group (FIG), New York.

There's no law against running a flawed business poorly. If there were, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would have far more to work with in going after former Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bosses for misleading investors.

JPMorgan named a new head of its leveraged finance group in North America, the bank confirmed.

KeyBanc Capital Markets (KBCM) hired Christopher Moroz and Michael Giasi to its fixed-income team, expanding KBCM's MBS capabilities.

BlackRock has appointed Jeffrey Rosenberg as managing director and chief investment strategist for fixed income.

KeyBanc Capital Markets has hired Steve Rielly from UBS to oversee loan trading, ASR sister publication Leveraged Finance News has confirmed.

DDR Corp. has appointed Luke Petherbridge senior vice president of capital markets.

New Zealand law firm Russell McVeagh has announced four new partners in its Auckland and Wellington offices.

Third-party review firm Allonhill today announced hired Tammy Schiff as chief marketing officer.