Career moves

Frank Byrne was let go last week as UBS' head of structured-products underwriting and origination, 18 months after he was hired to spearhead growth in those areas, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Stephen L. Ledbetter, senior vice president of MBS for the Ginnie Mae, is leaving the agency for a senior position at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), according to officials familiar with the matter.

While the sudden departure of Bank of New York Mellon CEO Robert Kelly late Wednesday might have come as a surprise to some industry observers, it was actually a change Rochdale Securities Bank analyst Dick Bove called for two weeks ago.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has named new coheads of its global leveraged finance group, according to an internal memo.

It's been a brutal time for executives in structured finance departments across Wall Street since the 2008 financial crisis.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. said late Wednesday that Robert P. Kelly had resigned as chairman and chief executive due to differences with the board "in approach to managing the company."

Larry McDonald has joined Newedge's corporate credit sales desk as a senior director.

3Point Asset Management, Irvine, Calif., has hired Ron Millar as AVP in charge of sales and trading.

In November of 2009, Charles Taylor, director of the Pew Financial Reform Project, wrote a letter to the editor of Financial Times advocating higher capital requirements for banks.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has boosted its fixed-income team by appointing Sarah Wall as senior ABS investment analyst.

Prudential Mortgage Capital Co. has appointed Curtis Brunton as a principal in the Western region.

BTIG added three high yield sales professionals to its fixed-income group, the New York-based financial services firm said today. It also added two professionals to its convertible bonds group.

Lewtan appointed Salil Donde as chief executive officer. Donde joins Lewtan from Marshall & Swift/Boeckh, a provider of essential property information solutions.

Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks said C.T. Hill, its corporate executive vice president and head of consumer banking and mortgage, would now have his primary focus on the company's mortgage business.

An "unprecedented crackdown." That's how Commissioner David Stevens described a get-tough program that took place under him at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) from mid-2009 until April of this year. As part of the push, the FHA's Mortgage Review Board issued more administrative actions against lenders in Stevens' first year than it had in the prior eight years combined.

In an unusual — and sure-to-be-humbling — move, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan will submit to a public grilling by a big investor on Wednesday. Hedge fund manager Bruce Berkowitz will host a 90 minute conference call with Moynihan starting at 1 p.m. EST — and he wants your "toughest questions" for Moynihan, whose troubled company's shares have fallen almost 50% this year.Berkowitz, founder of Fairholme Capital Management, said last week that the "purpose of the call is to better understand how Bank of America is navigating the economic environment." He invited skeptics to participate on the call. ASR sister publication American Banker took him at his word and sent along the list below.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft hired Jeffrey Chen for its Hong Kong office as partner. Chen, formerly with Mayer Brown JSM in Hong Kong, will be a part of the capital markets team.

SNR Denton hired Scott Samlin as a partner in the capital markets practice. Samlin was previously at Morgan Stanley where he was the executive director for the residential mortgage and lending compliance business. He will be based in New York.

CIT Group has appointed Nelson J. Chai as president, the company said today.

The CRE Finance Council (CREFC) hired Martin Schuh to fill the newly created position of director, legislative and regulatory policy. The new hire is based in CREFC’s new Washington, DC office.