Sharad Chaudhary has been appointed Banc of America Securities' new head of asset-backed securities research. The move comes one year after the position was vacated by the resignation of Meredith Hill (BW, 3/5/01). In addition to his ABS duties, Chaudhary has also been overseeing B of A's residential and commercial mortgage-backed research, says Pat Augustine, the group head of MBS and ABS sales, trading and research and to whom Chaudhary reports. During the past year, ABS research had been handled by Tim Patrick, a managing director and head of high-grade research and credit strategy.
Augustine says the bank is reorganizing its mortgage structure. James Souse, V.P., will specifically cover commercial mortgage-backed securities research and report directly to Chaudhary (BW, 3/4). It is not yet clear who, under Chaudhary's supervision, will be in charge of MBS research, says Augustine.