WaMu Capital Corp. recently opened a Chicago sales office for its growing mortgage-backed securities dealer business. It has made two hires, relocated another professional from New York and plans to add another salesman in the Windy City, said Todd Kaufman, national sales manager. The new Chicago sales hires are Carl Schref, most recently at Banc of America Securities, and Charles Kapp, from Piper Jaffray. Meanwhile, Bill Coppedge has transferred from New York to the Chicago sales office.
Although Chicago has not experienced the rapid growth in new alternative investors like the New York area has, Kaufman said it is worth opening a Midwest sales office to gain proximity to traditional investors such as large insurance companies, money managers and banks.
Kaufman said the expansion is part of WaMu Capital's broader growth plan, which is to move up the league tables of MBS broker dealers by leveraging its parent company's origination activities on the securities side. "Our goal is to be a top-tier mortgage shop," he said, noting as a dealer WaMu has more flexibility to structure collateral than other firms unconnected to a mortgage originator has, and is doing an increasing amount of business from reverse inquiries. "We have really integrated well with the bank; it gives you a lot more flexibility when you have the raw material," he said, referring to investor demands for specific collateral exposure and the dealer's ability to structure bonds accordingly.
The firm has been building up its business for more than the last year (BW, 5/12/04). In that time, it has established an Alt-A mortgage conduit that now purchases such loans.
On the trading side, Felix Partow, formerly of Deutsche Bank, started at WaMu Capital in New York last week to spearhead MBS derivatives trading.