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The FSA expects to wrap at least two securitizations in Mexico's domestic market this year, according to Eduardo Ramos, managing director of Latin America at Euromoney's Fifth Annual Securitization in Latin America Summit held in Miami last week. While they will probably be in the mortgage sector, the monoline insurer is looking at other asset classes as well like consumer loans, auto loans, infrastructure and state. Ramos has been running the FSA's Latin American effort for the last five months. Legislation regulating monoline insurers was just passed in Mexico, and the market awaits regulation for implementing that law, which should happen this year. Until the regulations are in place, monoline insurers will need to continue getting regulatory approval on a case-by-case basis.

Cantor Fitzgerald has added two managing directors to its debt capital markets group. Jack Nealon, formerly director of fixed income sales at Deutsche Bank, will be based in Dallas, reporting to Scott Golden, managing director and co-manager of MBS in New York. Meanwhile, Hogan will be based in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. and will report to Larry Haag, managing director and head of credit sales in New York. Hogan was previously a director of fixed income sales at Baird & Co. He held similar positions at firms like JPMorgan and BNP Paribas.

Deutsche Bank appointed Richard D'Albert as the sole global head of the securitized products group. This follows former securitized group co-head Michael Raynes' departure to Citigroup last month. Raynes is now Citigroup's head of global structured credit business. Matt Press was also appointed as global head of structured capital markets. He was formerly the European head of the business. The bank said that Press's appointment would allow Ivon Dunbar to focus on his role as head of global markets in Europe. Deutsche also promoted Mark Ritter, formerly the global head of commodities, to chief operating officer for global credit trading. Ritter is replacing Mark Beeston who left Deutsche last July to join electronic platform for credit derivatives T-Zero. Both Ritter and D'Albert will still be based in New York and Press will be based in London. All of them will report to Rajeev Misra, head of global trading.

XL Capital Assurance has hired Lina Kharnak as a director of its structured investment product group. Kharnak, who is based in New York, reports to Sohail Rasul, senior managing director and head of the group. She was formerly at Standard & Poor's where she was a director in its global CDO group since 1998. During that time, she rated more than 80 CDO transactions, including cash flow, arbitrage and synthetic hybrid CDOs, backed by different asset classes such as high yield bonds, ABS and leveraged loans. Kharnak, who is a lawyer by background, also has legal experience in the structured finance and mutual funds areas. Before her stint at S&P, she worked at law firms such as the former Battle Fowler (now Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker) and Brown & Wood, (now Sidley Austin). She began her career in 1994 at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Kharnak's hire follows Jas Jalaf's appointment as a director in XLCA's European CDO group last April.

Fulbright & Jaworski LLP announced last week that asset and aircraft financing experts Shephard Melzer and Debra Goldberg joined the firm as partners. Melzer also joins the firm as a senior counsel. Both will be based in New York City. Melzer and Goldberg are considered leaders in the field aircraft and equipment leasing. Melzer served as chairman of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York's aeronautics committee and is a co-author of a regular column on asset-based financings and secured transactions in the New York Law Journal. Melzer and Goldberg have worked on a broad range of secured and unsecured financings, and heavy equipment leasing and other commercial transactions. Both have structured financings based on various assets such as jet aircraft, cargo ships and tankers, drilling rigs, rail cars, marine cargo containers, and medical, communications and technology equipment. They have also advised lenders and borrowers in structuring and negotiating complex loans, letters of credit, commercial paper, cross-border and other financing facilities. Their practice includes corporate restructurings, workouts and dispute resolution.

GSC Partners announced it has completed fund raising for its latest CDO fund, GSC European CDO Fund III. The new fund is a 420 million CLO that will target investments in European leveraged loans, focusing predominantly on senior secured loans, GSC said in a statement. Additionally, the fund will invest in European second lien loans, mezzanine loans and high yield bonds. European CDO Fund III is the 12th CDO the firm has raised since April 2000, including nine in the U.S. The firm announced the completion of the GSC Partners CDO Fund VII earlier this month. This fund is a $413 million CLO that will invest primarily in a diversified portfolio of U.S. middle market loans and mezzanine securities. Investments in the new European fund will focus on issuers with strong, defensible market positions in manufacturing, services and media and an enterprise value of 150 million or greater.

The Texas state legislature passed a bill recently that will eventually allow Entergy Texas to raise $400 million through securitization, and use the funds to finance storm recovery costs. Those familiar with the situation said that the utility company tapped Morgan Stanley to manage the deal.

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