Toronto-based rating agency Dominion Bond Rating Service has appointed Apea Koranteng, former global head of structured capital markets at ABN AMRO, to head a new structured finance group in London. The group will start analyzing and rating synthetic structures in the coming weeks and will cover Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The agency has also brought on board Michael Mackenzie, from insurance rating group A.M. Best, as a senior v.p. Both Apea and Mackenzie are ex-Standard & Poor's staffers. Caroline Creighton, spokeswoman in Toronto, said DBRS aims to be a global player in the growing structured finance market and further hires will be announced in the coming months. Koranteng and Mackenzie did not immediately return phone messages.
DBRS has been building its team and recently poached key Standard & Poor's quantitative analysts Kai Gilkes and Norbert Jobst (DW, 5/5). It could not be determined if the pair will be based in the new office.
