HSBC has hired Martin Priest, associate director in home equity structuring at UBS in New York. He started late last month in a similar role, according to an outsider familiar with Priest's move. Todd White and Neal Leonard, managing directors and co-head of the mortgage-backed securities group at HSBC, were unavailable to comment by press time. HSBC has made a number of hires in the last 15 months or so, including those of White and Leonard from Lehman Brothers, as part of its effort to create a full-scale mortgage securities business (BW, 5/31/04). Other notable MBS heavyweights to have joined HSBC since then include Rich Lightburn from Goldman Sachs to run liquid products (BW, 9/27/04) and top traders Russ Middleton and Brian Song from Bear Stearns (BW, 3/21).
At UBS, Priest reported to Shahid Quraishi, managing director in asset-backed finance in New York. Kris Kagel, spokesman for UBS, declined comment on Priest's departure or whether he will be replaced.