Rick Demilia has joined Deutsche Bank's trust and securities services group in New York City. Demilia was as a senior sales person at JPMorgan Chase, where he worked for 10 years. At Deutsche Bank, Demilia will be responsible for selling trust services to the bank's asset- and mortgage-backed securities, and ABCP clients.
The American Securitization Forum appointed John Hupalo, executive vice president of First Marblehead, and Guido Van Der Ven, a vice president at Sallie Mae, as co-chairs of its newly created student loan issuers subforum. The group attracted between 12 and 15 student loan issuers to its first meeting last week in Washington, D.C. The student loan sub forum will meet regularly to discuss increasing investor awareness and liquidity for student-loan-backed bonds, as well as how regulatory issues will impact the sector, according to the ASF.
Moody's Investors Service has promoted Neal Shah to team managing director, structured finance. Shah will co-head the group together with Annick Poulain, team managing director for Moody's EMEA residential mortgage-backed team. Both report to Detlef Scholz, group managing director, structured finance EMEA. Shah was previously the CEO for the international non-derivatives structured finance group at Moody's. He will help the transition until a new chief credit officer, who Moody's hasn't named as of yet, takes over.
Rabobank Group has appointed Sheldon Sussman as head of global financial markets (GFM) for Rabobank International, the bank's international business division. Sussman was also named to the managing board of Rabobank International in March of this year, making him the first non-Dutch appointee to that board. In his new role, Sussman will be based in London, and will oversee all of the bank's global financial markets business, which comprises approximately 550 employees based in London, Utrecht, Holland, New York, and Hong Kong. Sussman will continue to serve as head of structuring and portfolio management within the management team of GFM until a successor is hired, and William Mansfield will be replacing Sussman as head of GFM for Rabobank International in the Americas region. Mansfield will be based in New York.
Sidley Austin has promoted seven lawyers in its New York office, bringing the total to 37 associates and counsel elevated to partnership in the firm. Among the new partners are R.J. Carlson in the securitization and structured finance practice, where he focuses on mortgage-backed and asset-backed securitizations of all types; Nicholas Crowell in the litigation practice, where he concentrates on complex securities and commercial litigation matters; and Prabhat Mehta in the capital markets practice, where he focuses on international and domestic corporate, capital markets, private equity and derivatives transactions. Overall, Sidley Austin now has 575 partners in offices in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
CIT Group announced last week that Allan Allweiss was appointed executive vice president and Midwest regional manager for its CIT Business Capital unit. In his new role, Allweiss will be based in Chicago, and will be responsible for business development, client retention and credit quality across 11 Midwestern states. Before joining CIT, Allweiss was executive vice president for the Central Group of Bank of America Business Capital, based in Chicago, where he was in charge of business development within a 14-state area in the Midwest, and the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, Canada.
Mehmet Artun has joined Commerzbank Corporates and Markets (CBCM) as head of structured credit trading. Mehmet was previously at WestLB where he was executive director responsible for structured credit trading that included emerging markets. At CBCM, Mehmet will be responsible for the bank's correlation business, corporate index business and exotic and hybrid credit derivatives business, and will head up the structured credit trading team. He reports to Eckhard Arndt, head of credit trading.
Lovells has hired a three-lawyer team from German Ernst & Young's associate firm, Luther. Sven Brandt, Isabelle Knoche-Hess and Richard Reimer are set to join the firm this summer. The hires follow the firm's announcement that it intends to boost its capital market presence. Lovells' German office lost its head of securitization, Oliver Kessler, along with partner Jens Rinze, who both left to head up Sidley Austin's German arm in October 2005.
Cohen & Steers has announced that Leonard Geiger will join its global real estate securities team as senior vice president and director of European research. Geiger was most recently at CBRE Global Real Estate Securities as senior portfolio manager and director, pan- European property securities. Geiger will be based in the firm's London office, which is set to open in the 3Q06. He will focus on the U.K. and European real estate securities markets and work closely with the firm's global investment team located in New York City, Brussels and Hong Kong.
The Mortgage Bankers Association promoted Steve O'Connor to senior vice president, public policy. O'Connor joined the MBA in 1996 as senior director of single-family housing, and has also previously served as vice president for industry relations and policy development. O'Connor will continue to manage the development of MBA's residential policy positions on regulatory, legislative and industry issues. In his new role, he will also manage outreach to the MBA members and industry stakeholders. He will also work on the MBA's 15 residential policy conferences and will help position the MBA as the primary resource on residential policy issues. O'Connor will report to Kurt Pfotenhauer, senior vice president of government affairs and public policy.
Enhancing its structured finance practice group last week was Thacher Proffitt & Wood with the announcement of two new counsels in the firm. Derek Woodhouse has been promoted to counsel, which became effective April 26, and J. Anthony Girolami joins the firm as counsel, which became effective June 19. Woodhouse has experience advising public and private entities on energy and infrastructure projects in countries around the world, and Girolami represents clients in transactions involving the development, construction and financing of large-scale infrastructure projects. The duo resides in Thacher Proffitt's Mexico City office, Thacher Proffitt & Wood S.C. This announcement follows a number of recent hires that almost doubled the number of attorneys in the Mexico City office.
The Bond Market Association announced last week that it will add information on underlying collateral to the quarterly global CDO issuance data it began publishing earlier this year. The underlying collateral categories include investment grade loans, high yield loans, high yield bonds, investment grade bonds, structured finance securities, mixed collateral, other swaps, and other. Thomson Financial provides the underlying data in the format reported by BMA. "Publishing this additional data is another way in which the CDO committee continues to work to make the CDO market more transparent," said Robbin Conner, vice president and assistant general counsel at BMA. "Improving transparency increases investors' comfort with CDOs, and that in turn is positive for market development and increased liquidity." The second quarter figures show total issuance increased to $89.5 billion from $87.5 billion in the first quarter of 2006, and up from $60.6 billion in the second quarter of 2005. Structured finance was the largest underlying collateral, at close to $50 billion, followed by high yield loans at $38.6 billion.
Credit derivative product companies (CDPCs), although still relatively new, are rapidly becoming popular, according to a new criteria report by Fitch Ratings. Fitch has provided Issuer Default Ratings and liability ratings for CDPCs, which are limited-purpose operating companies that provide credit default protection on corporate obligors, ABS, tranches of CDOs and synthetic CDOs. "Credit DPCs have the ability to raise permanent equity capital and can sell credit protection on highly rated obligors to multiple counterparties on an ongoing basis," said Fitch senior director Alan Dunetz. "The appeal for credit DPCs can in part be attributed to their focus on CDS and their ability to operate independently of their sponsors, as opposed to traditional derivative product companies that concentrate largely on interest rate and currency swaps and options."
In a move that strengthens its U.S. structured finance and derivatives team, the law firm Linklaters has announced the addition of Stan Renas as the fourth partner to the practice. Renas, who previously worked as an associate in both Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, focuses his practice on cash and hybrid synthetic collateralized loan obligations, master-feeder structures, off-balance sheet and tax-oriented financings, insurance product transactions, vehicle securitization transactions and project financings. Renas will be based in the firm's New York office, bringing the total number of partners in that office to 22.
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