XL Capital Assurance, the New York-based asset-backed securities guarantor, has hired Steven Katz for a newly created position as a director in its credit group. Katz comes from Woodcliff Lake, N.J. based buy-side fixed-income manager Seix Investment Advisors. Katz will do credit research on diversified financial companies, with an emphasis on auto-finance and home-equity companies, two of the largest sectors within the ABS market. He will report to Patrick Mathis, senior managing director and chief credit officer who heads the five-person credit team. Katz says he made the move because he wanted the opportunity to expand his credit expertise within a smaller company atmosphere.
Mitch Karig, a spokesman with XL, says the credit group will be adding more hires this year. He declined to elaborate.
At Seix, Katz worked as a high-yield analyst under the supervision of Michael McEachern, high-yield portfolio manager. McEachern declined to say if Katz's position had been filled. Before working for Seix, Katz was an associate director in the global credit group at Bear Stearns and prior to that, a director in the financial services group at Fitch.