It's rumored that Eileen Murphy has resigned from Chase Securities/J.P. Morgan. Murphy, who joined Chase from Moody's Investors Service in the spring, was hired as a managing director and global head of the collateralized debt obligations group.
This follows Frank Ronin's resignation from Chase just two weeks back. Similar to Murphy, Ronin was brought on by Chase earlier in the year to spearhead the CDO effort. Both moves were precipitated by friction resulting from the merger, an insider said.
Bear, Stearns International nabbed a team from Nikko Principal Investments to expand its fixed-income and derivatives businesses outside the U.S. Andrew Clapham, a managing director at Nikko and head of its principal investments, joins Bear's London division as a managing director and head of asset-backed finance for Europe and Asia. Joining Clapham from Nikko are Scott Dickens as managing director and Adam Wilton. In addition Stephen Murray a vice president from Moody's Investors Service and Rick Watson, a Bear Stearns managing director, join as part of the team.
Commerzbank Securities has hired Peter Tchir, formerly of Deutsche Bank; Fran Reed, formerly of Barclays Capital; Mark Noble, formerly of Morgan Keegan; and Paul Horrmann, formerly of Garban Intercapital; in it's New York fixed income trading division as part of its U.S. fixed income expansion.
Tennessee is reviewing a proposal that would give farmers the first payment of its tobacco settlement securitizations, if the state government allows the securitization of its tobacco settlement. The payment is expected to be around $200 million.
The governor of Mississippi is looking at securitizing a $120 million legal settlement to help fund the construction of a new Nissan Motor Co. auto plant in the state.
