J.P. Morgan Securities has hired David Montano to become chief of all mortgage research--a new slot--at the firm. He joins fromCredit Suisse First Boston, where he ran the firm's MBS research effort. He will report jointly to residential MBS chief Kevin Finnerty and Nanette Abuhoff, head of interest-rate research. Montano, who made his first appearance last year on the Institutional Investor All American Fixed-Income Research Team, will take over for Joan Rogers, who has moved to the bank's MBS investment portfolio side. Montano, who had left CSFB as of last Thursday, did not take any colleagues with him, nor was it certain when he would begin at J.P. Morgan, or what his title would be. Montano could not be reached and Finnerty did not return a phone call seeking comment.
At CSFB, Montano reported to MBS chief Matt Ruppell, who was on vacation last week. Rajan Dobelhakar, CSFB's prepayment and quantitative modeler, said he had not been told who would running MBS research, nor did he know when the decision would be made. Patrick Corcoran, J.P. Morgan's head of commercial mortgage-backed securities research, says he did not think Montano's hire would affect his work, and was uncertain as to how reporting lines would shift.