Moody's Investors Service has added two analysts to its asset-backed group, according to Marc Cohen, a v.p. and senior credit officer in the group in New York. Both hires, which are additions and new to the structured finance industry, will be assigned to cover growing sectors. Yuval Lifshitz, who joined earlier this month as an associate analyst, will rate deals coming out of the booming student loan market. He previously worked at Novartis AG. Ido Gonen, who started late last month also as an associate analyst, will rate new deals coming out of the residential mortgage-backed sector. Gonen comes from Altria Group.
Student loan and mortgage-related ABS are the only two structured finance sectors growing this year, according to several Wall Street researchers.