The CDO research group at Wachovia Securities continues its expansion with the addition of Anik Ray as a CDO analyst last week. Ray, a May 2004 graduate from Columbia University with a B.S. in Engineering and Operations, reports to managing director Arturo Cifuentes. Additionally, analyst Manish Desai will move from Wachovia's Charlotte office to New York.
Thacher Profitt & Wood elected Gene Haldeman and Serena Mentor to partners, effective July 1. Haldeman joined TPW in 1993 and Mentor joined the firm in 1995. "We are delighted to welcome Gene and Serena into the partnership," said Paul Tvetenstrand, managing partner of Thacher Proffitt. "They each already have contributed tremendously to their practice area and to the firm as a whole, and I am looking forward to their continued successes."
Janet A. Barbiere was named a partner at law firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood last week. Barbiere, who focuses on CMBS, has been with Sidley Austin for four years.
Wachovia Institutional Trust hired J.M. (Joe) Cunniff Jr. as new business development officer in its Structured Finance Trust Services group, reporting to John Shope, national sales director of Corporate and Institutional Trust. In his position, Cunniff will cover trustee sales for asset and mortgage-backed securities and document custody product lines throughout the East Coast out of the Boston office. Cunniff worked at State Street Bank for the previous five years.
Financial Guaranty Insurance Corp. has added two senior members to its structured finance group. Last week, Rick Watson, formerly of the European securitization group at HSBC Securities, started as a managing director in the London-based structured finance group. Watson has expertise in both ABS and CDO origination. Prior to HSBC, Watson was with Bear Stearns' international securitization group. FGIC also recently hired Y.C. Wu as director in structured finance, working out of the firm's New York office. Yu, who will focus on commercial ABS, was most recently with MBIA. Wu has experience in esoteric asset classes, such as insurance securitization.
Sallie Mae has hired Doug Maurer as a vice president of credit, where he will head the student lender's private lending operations. In his new function he will report to Patty Morris, vice president of credit and loan portfolio analysis. Maurer has worked in the student loan industry since 1990, when he worked at EduCap. Most recently, Maurer served as chief financial officer for Electronic Consulting Services.
Residential mortgage loan servicer Fairbanks Capital Corp. said today that it is officially changing its name to Select Portfolio Servicing Corp. Company President Matt Hollingsworth said that the name change was in keeping with "a new stronger and more positive relationship with consumers, bondholders, clients, community groups and regulators." Salt Lake City-based Fairbanks came to the forefront last year due to allegations and charges in connection with predatory loan servicing.
Freddie Mac reported last week that its retained portfolio increased in May after dropping for six straight months. The retained portfolio rose at a 5% annualized rate to $634 billion. The firm's total mortgage portfolio also grew at a 10% annualized rate last month to $1.44 trillion. New business purchases increased while liquidations notably dropped. The annualized liquidation rate was 32% over the month, decreasing from 42% in April.
Barclays Capital last week completed a Collateralized Fund Obligation backed by HFRX Global Tracker Fund. The offering marks the first time a CFO linked to the index had been launched in Europe. The bonds were euro-denominated.
Michael Kanef was named as group managing director in charge of asset finance at Moody's Investors Service, replacing Andy Silver, who is resigning to accept a position at Rutgers University. See related story on p. 14.
ABN AMRO has hired Sharon Asch as a director in its U.S. ABS origination group, reporting to managing director Bill Haley. Asch previously worked as a senior credit analyst in the Moody's Investors Service student loan ABS group for the past six years. "I am very pleased to have someone of Sharon's caliber and experience joining our team," said Haley. "This is a further step forward in ABN AMRO's continued build-out of its term ABS team."
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