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Whispers

The American Securitization Forum announced that its 2006 conference will be held from Jan. 29 through Jan. 1 at the Wynn Hotel and Conference Center in Las Vegas. The Wynn, which officially opens Monday, has 2,700 rooms, a conference facility and an 18-hole golf course on site, is expected to provide lodging for all conference attendees.

Charles "Chip" Schorin, long-time Morgan Stanley head of ABS research, left the firm last Wednesday to take a position at an undisclosed hedge fund. Schorin was not available at his office at Morgan Stanley last Thursday, and multiple sources within the firm confirmed he was "no longer with the firm" but declined to give any further details. There was no word as of press time as to who would be replacing him or when.

Kumar Aiyer has left his position as a desk strategist at Banc of America Securities to accept a position as a portfolio manager at IXIS North America. Aiyer, who formerly went by the surname Neelakantan, had run BofA's ABS research effort, publishing a daily research piece, as well as periodical research as a strategist, prior to the recent reorganization of BofA's research group (see ASR 3/28/05) that moved him to his desk analyst role.

Deutsche Bank Securities hired Michael Henriques as a managing director in a newly created special situations group, which will work on the acquisition structuring and eventual securitization of principal finance transactions. Henriquez joins from Goldman Sachs, where he worked for 13 years.

The Bond Market Association, the International Securities Market Association and the International Primary Market Association jointly said today that they plan to integrate their European based activities into the International Capital Market Association and establish a global partnership between the BMA and new venture. Barclays Capital Chairman Hans-Joerg Rudloff is expected to become The International Capital Market Association chairman and Manfred Schepers, currently senior managing director and head of the BMA, will transfer from the BMA and be nominated to become chief executive of the International Capital Market Association. The creation of this global partnership and integration of the associations in Europe are subject to approval by the members of each of the associations and forum, due diligence and all necessary regulatory approvals, which are expected to be completed by early June 2005.

Kanchan Jain and David Szmukler have been appointed co-heads of structuring for structured credit products for Europe and the Middle East at HSBC Corporate, Investment Banking and Markets. Jain and Szmukler will be based in London and will report to Jeff Jakubiak, head of structured credit products for Europe and the Middle East and functionally to Allegra Kelly, global head of structuring, based in New York. Jain recently headed the structured solutions group at Barclays Capital and Szmukler is currently a senior structuring pro for the HSBC structured credit products group based in New York.

Toby Gray, Edward Hickman, Elaine Keats and David Ludwick will join Linklaters London-based offices. Gray joins the firm as a partner in its derivatives and structured product focus. Hickman will join the firm as a partner in structured finance and will cover a large variety of asset classes across a range of European and Asian jurisdictions. Keats and Ludwick both join the form as partners in equity and debt. Anders Malm will join the Linklaters equity and debt practice based in Stockholm.

Merrill Lynch hired Ari Kavour from Goldman Sachs and Gary Reback from Bear Stearns as managing directors in the fixed-rate CMO group. Kavour will trade CMO product while Reback will work on structuring.

Japanese wedding services specialist, Take and Give Needs (T&G Needs), is to securitize cashflows from 14 new stores prior to their opening later this year. The novel scheme, devised by Resona Bank, will both finance the 6.3 billion ($59 million) construction costs of the stores and enable the company to report its first positive net cash flow since it listed in 2001. Under the program, T&G Needs will establish two special purpose vehicles: one to buy land and finance store building - keeping costs off balance sheet - and the other to sell beneficiary rights backed by future revenues from the stores. A first offering is expected in the second half of 2005, just prior to the new shops opening.

Bear Stearns last week launched Bear Stearns Residential Mortgage Corp., to originate private-label mortgages. The new company will offer mortgage brokers a streamlined process for financing mortgages. The system will allow brokers to receive immediate feedback on mortgage loan product and pricing scenarios. Through this program, brokers will be able to electronically submit loan applications for approval by an automated underwriting engine, lock in, and price loans online. Officials from the company said that Bear Direct will be the first time loans will close in Bear Stearns' name

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