Cantor Fitzgerald has hired two Wall Street mortgage veterans to jumpstart a mortgage-backed sales and trading effort it is establishing and plans to hire up to 25 more mortgage sales and trading professionals over the coming months. The new effort is being created as part of a broader repositioning of its business activities in the aftermath of 9/11. Matt Mancuso joined last week to head up an MBS sales operation and Steve Bischoff starts today to head up the MBS trading side. Mancuso had previously worked as a mortgage salesman at Advest Securities; before that, he spent 18 years on the MBS side at Bear Stearns. Bischoff was a senior collateralized mortgage obligation trader at GMAC-RFC.
Cantor plans to hire five to seven traders and 15-20 salesmen in the next few months to bolster the nascent operation, according to Mancuso. The effort stems from the hiring of Irv Goldman in the summer as president of debt capital markets and asset management with a mandate to expand these divisions. Goldman joined from Credit Suisse First Boston where he was a former head of fixed income sales. "We have been given a mandate under Irv Goldman to build a broker-dealer," explains Mancuso, adding, "our aim is to be a super-regional." Mancuso will report to Bischoff, who was on vacation skiing last week and did not return a call. An official in Goldman's office referred calls to Tom Ryan, a spokesman for Cantor, who confirmed the MBS initiative but declined further comment.
Matt Baber, a senior mortgage-backed official who resigned from Advest last week, may also join Cantor, according an official familiar with the situation. Susan Bailey, a spokeswoman for Advest, confirmed Mancuso's departure but declined further comment. Mark Iverson, a spokesman for GMAC-RFC, would only confirm that Bischoff has left the firm.
