Douglas Landy has joined Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft as special counsel in the securities and financial institutions regulation department, where he will focus on domestic and foreign financial institution regulation, compliance, risk management, insolvency, mergers and acquisitions, securitizations and structured finance. Landy reports to Cadwalader's Chairman and Managing Partner Robert Link. He was previously a partner in the finance department at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw.
Hugo Doswald recently left his position at Deutsche Genossenschafts-
Hypothekenbank to accept a position as managing director at TXS Financial Products GmbH. In his new role, he will focus on the design of the TXSuite and SAP Syndications Management product lines, for the syndication, securitization and management of Pfandbriefe.
The International Association of Credit Portfolio Managers announced last week that it has elected Ivan Marcotte, senior vice president at Bank of America, as the IACPM's new chair, and Veronique Ormezzano, global head of corporate and investment banking at BNP Paribas, was elected vice chair. Meanwhile, Keith Ho, managing director and global head of portfolio management at Barclays Capital will remain as secretary, and Steve Bennett, senior vice president at CIBC World Markets, will remain treasurer. Marcotte will replace Gene Guill, managing director in the loan exposure group at Deutsche Bank and former chair of the IACPM. The IACPM has outlined several goals for 2006, one of which is to expand its membership beyond traditional loan credit portfolio managers to portfolio managers of other asset classes, such as bonds and CDOs, the IACPM said in a statement.
Refco Inc. concluded its sale of substantially all of the assets of its domestic regulated commodity futures business to Man Financial Inc., the company announced. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the sale at the request of the Chapter 7 Trustee, Albert Togut, to permit the seamless transfer of customer accounts over the weekend when global markets are closed. Substantially all of the employees Refco LLC are joining Man Financial, the company added in a release.
Information Management Network has hired professional golfer Jim McGovern to greet and offer assistance to players at Shot-Gun Start Golf Tournament to be held during its ABS West 2006 conference in Phoenix from Feb. 7 through 10, 2006. McGovern, an Oradell, N.J. native who attended Bergen Catholic High School, currently ranks 259th on the PGA Tour Money Leader list with $7,932 year-to-date but is 43rd on the Nationwide Tour with $122,788 this year.
Rumors suggest the first two SME deals supported by Malaysian secondary mortgage company Cagamas have been submitted to the Malaysian Securities Commission for approval. Citigroup and Aseambankers are handling the transaction, which will securitize loans originated by the latter's parent, Maybank. Cagamas' role is limited to paying arrangers fees (ASR, 6/27/05).
Hsinchu Bank has mandated Calyon Securities to handle Taiwan's first cross-border RMBS deal. It is likely the 250 million deal - rated Aaa by Moody's Investors Service on account of a monoline wrap from Ambac - will be completed in 2005 if all goes to plan. Road shows will shortly take place in major investment centers in Asia and Europe. Credit enhancement will come chiefly through 15% subordination. If successful, the transaction would be only the second cross-border deal to come out of Taiwan. UBS and HypoVereinsbank jointly arranged the first in December 2003, a $230 million credit card deal by Cosmos Bank. An illiquid swap market has subsequently hindered offshore issuance, although this situation has improved in the past year.
The ceiling on Federal Housing Administration-insured loans will rise next year to roughly $362,790 - equal to 87% of the Freddie Mac limit - in about three dozen high-cost markets. FHA's cap next year on the maximum loan amount in most other places will be approximately $200,160 or 48% of the Freddie ceiling. Since the FHA must determine a limit for each of over 3,300 U.S. jurisdictions, a formal announcement won't be made until the end of December at the earliest, according to ASR sister publication National Mortgage News. Additionally, the maximum no-downpayment mortgage to be guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will be $417,000 next year. Although eligible veterans are allowed to buy higher-priced houses, because the VA "guaranty" is accepted by some lenders as a substitute for a 25% down payment, home buyers would have to put up $1 of their own money for every $4 they want to borrow above the limit.
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