Arturo Cifuentes, managing director and global head of collateralized debt obligation research at Wachovia Securities in New York, has left the firm. Cifuentes, known for his colorful research reports that have referenced the world's greatest tennis players and Zorro, was at Wachovia for two years.
Cifuentes declined comment and it could not be determined if he has signed on with another firm. Brian Lancaster, head of structured products research at Wachovia, did not return calls. Before Wachovia, Cifuentes was at Triton Partners, co-managing a CDO of CDO. Prior to that he was at Moody's Investors Service, where he developed the methodology used to assign ratings to CDOs.