Luke S. Hayden, Security Pacific Corp.

LUKE S. HAYDEN First vice president Security Pacific, Los Angeles

Luke S. Hayden stepped into the forefront of a new breed of bankers last year when he took responsibility of a $21 billion portfolio of consumer receivables at Security Pacific Corp.

As an asset-securitization specialist, Mr. Hayden, 35, is one of the innovative bankers who package loan receivables into securities with predictable income streams. Once the securities are sold off, banks are freed from having to hold large amounts of capital against them.

The upcoming merger of Security Pacific with Bank-America Corp. is likely to open new horizons in Mr. Hayden's career. He has already achieved industrywide prominence as a member of the American Bankers Association's executive committee on housing and real estate finance.

After starting out in mortgage banking, Mr. Hayden has climbed a career path that paralleled the new investment products.

His first job, in 1978, was as a loan officer at Ralph C. Sutro Co., a Los Angeles mortgage banking firm. He developed a department that bought loans from originators and then sold them to investors.

He spent most of the 1980s with First Interstate Bancorp's lead bank and mortgage affiliate, then joined Security Pacific in 1989 as first vice president for seconday marketing.

At Security Pacific last year, Mr. Hayden sold about $6.4 billion of assets, allowing the bank to increase its capital by at least $256 million, or 4%. The portfolio includes residential first-trust deeds, second-trust deeds, home equity lines of credit, and receivables backed by automobile and mobile home loans.

"If the market will pay more for the asset than the shareholder demand sin return on equity, then you seel," he said.

He adds: "The legal and operational infrastructure of consumer lending will evolve to allow banks to be both providers of consumer credit and financial market conduits for consumer credit. The result will be nimble banks with better diversified balance sheets."

But there are obstacles, some of which will occupy Mr. Hayden in his ABA role.

One is a proposal that would require banks to mark assets to their market value. Such a rule could increase the volatility of securities backed by mortgages and other receivables. Also of concern to asset securitizers: The right of the Resolution Trust Corp. To repudiate contracts and, separately, the amount of capital that must be held against purchased mortgage servicing rights.

No doubt about it, if asset securitization doesn't keep Mr. Hayden hopping, Washington will.

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