Morgan Stanley has hired Sami Boustany, an adjustable-rate mortgage securities trading veteran, to start an agency-backed ARMS trading effort. Boustany joins from UBS Warburg. He had left UBS Warburg last week and was unavailable to comment; his first day is today. He will report to whole-loan MBS product chief Gary Mendelsohn and will eventually be paired with a private-label hybrid ARMs trader, says securitized product chief Tony Tufariello. At UBSW, he will be replaced by an internal transfer, Shayan Norasteh, who will continue to report to agency ARM and pass-through trading boss Brian Cohane.
Separately, Morgan Stanley recently hired Frank Palotta from Credit Suisse First Boston to be part of its sales coverage of mortgage originators. He will report to Craig Lipsay, head of securitized sales in New York. He started several weeks ago, says Tufariello. CSFB insiders say Palotta was a key member of CSFB's origination sales desk, widely considered the Street's best. At CSFB, Palotta was a managing director and reported to Ben Aitkenhead.