Societe Generale is entering the U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities market and has hired a team of more than 10 people from Royal Bank of Scotland Group for the effort.
Wayne Potters, who most recently led RBS's commercial real estate group, will head the CMBS group for the French bank, according to an emailed statement. Societe Generale said it also hired Adam Ansaldi, who previously oversaw the CMBS distribution and securitization at RBS.
The bank is seeking "to develop asset-backed product capabilities that will take advantage of a trend towards increased securitization to finance the economy at a time when many banks' capacity to hold assets on their balance sheets is limited," according to the statement.
The move is part of a global initiative headed in the U.S. by Hatem Mustapha and comes as banks worldwide face stricter capital rules in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. It also expands on a push by the lender into the market for U.S. government-backed mortgage securities that started in 2013.
Societe Generale's expansion contrasts with a retreat from U.S. capital markets by foreign banks such as RBS and Barclays. RBS, the U.K.'s biggest government-owned lender, said in November that its securities arm would be exiting U.S. mortgages amid new regulations and a plan to focus on its U.K. consumer and business bank.
Other members of the new Societe Generale group include Gary Swon, Joey Petras, Chris Kramer, Peter Lewicki, Stewart Whitman, David Goodwin, Jim Barnard, Justin Cappuccino and Marty Black. The team will "engage in the full range of CMBS activities from origination to distribution," according to the statement.
