The American Securitization Forum (ASF) is ending its administrative affiliation with The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).
The ASF's board of directors has also unanimously chosen Tom Deutsch as the association's new executive director. Deutsch previously served as acting executive director of the ASF.
The ASF, which serves over 350 member institutions that are part of the securitization industry, has been self-funded and self-governed since its inception in 2002. However, the forum has used certain operational resources of SIFMA and SIFMA's predecessor The Bond Market Association. That relationship has ended and the ASF will now independently serve the securitization markets.
Meanwhile, Deutsch takes over from George Miller, who resigned from his position as of Dec. 16 and was ASF's executive director since 2004.
The new appointee has also been with the ASF since 2004 as deputy executive director and as associate director at the time of his joining. He has played a key role in a number of the forum's major projects, including spearheading the launch of ASF Project RESTART.
Prior to his stint at the ASF, Deutsch was an attorney in the capital markets department of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he represented issuers and underwriters in various structured finance deals, including RMBS and ABS offerings. Before this, he was an associate at McKee Nelson where he focused on RMBS.
