Securitization People and Markets

David Whitehouse, a senior collateralized debt obligation salesman at Morgan Stanley, recently left the firm, according to one of his colleagues. The circumstances of his departure could not be determined. Whitehouse, an executive director, structured funds and structured credit products sales, reported to Len Brous, principal who heads the CDO sales effort at the firm. Whitehouse did not return a call to his residence. Brous did not return calls seeking comments.

Royal Bank of Scotland has made a new hire to its London-based securitization team. Malcolm Jackson, formerly a member of Mizuho Corporate Bank's London securitization team, has joined RBS to work on commercial mortgage-backed securitizations and whole business deals, says an official familiar with the move.

Hispamer, Spain's largest consumer lender, is preparing Santander Consumer Finance--a special purpose vehicle through which it plans to securitize at least E3 billion per year in loans originated in Spain, Italy and Germany, says Eduardo San Martin, managing director of treasury and finance in Madrid. The program will start next year. Investment banks have not been mandated for any deals and San Martin says deals will be put out for bid on an issue-by-issue basis.

John Tormondsen, the former head of liquid capital markets at Goldman Sachs, and Raif Ezratty, the former head of fixed-income trading at high-profile hedge fund Moore Capital, are in the process of raising capital for a hedge fund called Zpoint Advisors. Ezratty, reached on his cell phone, says "if it's in the document, it's true," referring to an offering circular for the new fund. A portion of the offering circular was read to BondWeek by potential investors in the fund who had received it. Ezratty declined further comment. Tormondsen, known as "Turbo" for many years, did not return a call by press time last Friday morning. The fund, says hedge fund pros who have the offering circular, will be relative value in scope, albeit with a directional component.

Over the past 35 years, the Federal Reserve has attempted to manipulate the economy through monetary policy. The basic theory behind this policy--monetarism--was a belief that the growth in the quantity of money would affect economic activity. The theory stipulated that the Fed would maintain a specified growth target for various measures of the money supply and then manage policy, i.e., manipulate interest rates, to control the growth of money. The problem with this money-growth relationship is that, as a point of logic, it can be shown that with today's policy of a floating exchange rate for the U.S. dollar, causation runs from the economy to the aggregates, and not vice versa.

Porsche Holdings will start a E220 million conduit financing program next year through ABN AMRO, says Jochen Stich, group treasurer. Stich says Porsche is opting for the asset-backed commercial paper route because it has a need for continuous financing. ABN was tapped for the deal because the firm brought Porsche's first term deal to market in 2001. Ultimately, Porsche will go for a term deal, says Stich, but that will not happen until 2004.

Deutsche Bank has placed two commercial mortgage-backed securities traders, Jake Markman and Paul Mashikian, on administrative leave pending an investigation into mispricings of the firm's secondary trading positions, according to firm spokesman Ted Meyer. An individual with knowledge of the situation says losses incurred as a result of the traders' activity will amount to over $30 million by the time they are fully unwound.

GMAC-RFC Securities has hired Street veteran Michael Youngblood to head up its fledging research effort. Youngblood, whose first day is today, will be responsible for heading up GMAC-RFC's research in the mortgage-backed securities sector. Youngblood declined to comment. He will report to Rod McGuinness, the firm's president, and will issue relative-value opinions, develop indices to track the various MBS the firm issues as well as authoring a market surveillance report. Youngblood will be based in the firm's Bethesda, Md., office. GMAC-RFC is slated to receive Federal Reserve approval within the year to securitize and underwrite the loans it makes, according to an individual familiar with the firm. To date, the company has issued $27.3 billion in MBS and asset-backed securities.

Lehman Brothers has released four people from its high-yield division- three in Europe and one in the U.S., according to a senior high-yield official with knowledge of the moves. The European cutbacks are a response to an overall weak environment for junk there, though the firm retains an estimated 15 people in high-yield trading, sales and research who are based in London, says the official. Among those let go is Mahtab Vanjanni, a London-based senior v.p. in high-yield sales. Chris Cooke, head of high-yield sales in London, referred calls to Stewart Prosser, a company spokesman, who says, through a colleague, that the firm has made "small adjustments across all divisions and regions to reflect the challenging environment."