People
CMBS researcher and strategist Brian Lancaster has recently left Bear Stearns to join the fixed-income research team at First Union Capital Markets in Charlotte, North Carolina. Lancaster had been a managing director at Bear.
He was recently acknowledged at the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association's Seventh Annual Convention for an outstanding piece on missing loan documentation entitled "Missing CMBS Documents - A Wake Up Call" (see Mortgage-Backed Securities Letter 9/18/2000). Lancaster will be reporting to Brian Doyle at First Union, who is the fixed-income research department head.
Samir Noriega was hired to run JPMorgan's subordinate residential trading group. His title is vice president. Samir was formerly from Countrywide Securities Corp. Meanwhile, Mike Naughton has joined Countrywide to fill Noriega's position. However, Naughton will not only be a sub trader, but will also be involved in the structuring side as well.
S.G. Cowen Securities this week hired Wing Chau, formerly of New York Life Investment Management, as a vice president to head the Structured Asset Trading group in New York. Chau, who was responsible for CMBS/ABS/CDO investments at NYLIM, will report to Neil Parekh, managing director of the Credit Sales and Trading group.
Nick Jones, a manager in the derivatives department at Abbey National Financial Products, has jumped ship to Dresdner Bank to work on CDOs, market sources said. Jones was heavily involved with the Marlylebone Road CBO product at Abbey National.
MBIA and FSA are reportedly offering ABS professionals with seven years of Wall Street/rating agency experience approximately $125,000 to $135,000 and a 50% to 75% bonus, headhunter sources noted. Meanwhile, investment banks are said to be paying managing directors $250,000 to $300,000 salaries with 100% to 300% bonuses. Down the totem poll at the bank research analyst level, salaries are seen at $75,000 to $95,000 with 3 years experience. Agents added that employers are stretching existing staff further and waiting out the overall market turmoil before increasing numbers.
MBIA has been busy...
Paul David recently joined the firm's London structured finance team as a director and head of the private finance initiative (PFI) group, reporting to managing directors David Dubin and Philip Sullivan. David moved over from Ambac's London office, where he was head of the guarantor's PFI group as well.
Also in London, it is rumored that another PFI professional is moving over from Ambac to MBIA in the next week or so.
Meanwhile, Robert Velins recently started work in MBIA's office in Sydney, Australia.
In the U.S., Sue Valente has joined MBIA's Armonk office, to focus on the home equity sector. Valente was previously a director at GE Capital, and prior to that, ContiFinancial.
XL Capital Assurance has hired Mark Dunsheath, who came over from Advanta Corp., where he was a director in treasury department. Dunsheath reports to Ed Hubbard, chief financial officer at XLCA.
Buzz on the Street is that BNP Paribas is looking to make some serious hires for its asset-backed group, eyeing a few of the remaining ex-Prudential Securities bankers still floating around.
After four years, Jim McDonald has left Moody's Investors Service to join Banco Santender. Formerly an ABCP analyst, McDonald will now be setting up and managing the banks first conduit (See story p. 16).
Deutsche Bank is aiming to move in on CSFB's market share for ABS CDOs, with six to seven ABS CDO mandates secured, market sources said. Deutsche has Western Asset Management's first CDO lined-up, which will also be the bank's first ABS CDO execution of the year. The bank also has mandates for Zurich Skudder and Franklin Templeton.
Banc of America and Dresdner Bank won the mandate for Southern Peru Copper Corporation's $500 million export receivables transaction. Rumors are the deal may obtain a wrap from a monoline insurer. - MLW IFR Mortgage Data
News
Mortgage Risk Assessment Corp. (MRAC) is working on a Refi Index that will measure how often a borrower refis. This system would be borrower-specific, identifying which borrowers never refi and which borrowers refi all the time. The product could be available in three month's time.
A couple of Street dealers have already shown interest in the product, according to Chuck Ramsey, CEO of MRAC.
Ramsey said the MRAC will be very careful about disseminating information. "We would never release any of the names," said Ramsey. "We would simply let a company like Bear Stearns know that this property is owned by somebody who is a high refi user."
The $400 million office equipment securitization in the pipeline from Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. of South Korea, initially scheduled for June, had been delayed and is now firmly set for late July sources said. The second-ever office equipment securitization seen in South Korea, is led jointly by Credit Suisse First Boston and S.G. Cowen Securities.
