Dale Westhoff, a veteran mortgage-backed securities researcher well known in the industry for his short-term prepayment forecasts, has joined Credit Suisse as global head of structured products research.
Most recently Westhoff was in charge of consumer modeling teams at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Before that he was at Bear Stearns Cos., serving as senior managing director and head of quantitative research. (JPMorgan Chase bought Bear Stearns with government assistance in early 2008 as Bear began to crumble under the weight of its subprime investments.)
Over the years, Westhoff has specialized in analysis and modeling of MBS prepayments. He had been with Bear since 1990.
Some investment banking firms are staffing up their MBS departments, while others are exploring the possibility of launching conduits, anticipating that the jumbo MBS business will revive later in the year.
