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Cantor Fitzgerald LP, New York, has announced the formation of Cantor Real Estate LLC and named Andrew N. Stark to lead the group. Cantor said it plans to create a real estate fund focused chiefly on opportunistic investments in various sectors, including dislocated assets. Mr. Stark, who will be executive managing director of Cantor RE, was previously president of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of WCI Communities Inc. after starting his career as a real estate attorney at Lord Day & Lord, Barrett Smith. Cantor can be found on the Web at http://www.cantor.com.

Regions Financial Corp., Birmingham, Ala., has announced that David H. Rupp will join the company on May 19 as senior executive vice president and head of consumer services, which includes its mortgage business. Mr. Rupp, who had been the sales, service, and execution executive for Bank of America's global consumer and small business bank, will lead Regions' consumer banking and mortgage lines of business, its largest business segment by revenue. He will also be a member of Regions' Executive Council, its highest-level management committee. Mr. Rupp succeeds Candice Bagby, who is retiring after a 38-year banking career. Ms. Bagby will remain with the company through a transition period. Mr. Rupp, 44, led BoA's home equity business and was previously its chief financial officer for consumer real estate. He has also worked for Wachovia Bank as controller for consumer products and structured products.

KBW, a New York City-based investment bank, has announced the addition of two principals and an associate to its recently formed Real Estate Investment Banking Group. The new hires are principals Michael Hawkins and Robert Woomer and associate Christopher Hanley. Mr. Hawkins will focus on client coverage and Mr. Woomer will head KBW's real estate private equity team. All three join KBW from the Real Estate Investment Banking Group of Wachovia Securities. KBW, the parent company of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., can be found on the Web at http://www.kbw.com.

Jonathan Polansky, group managing director of the Asset Finance Group at Moody's Investors Service, has been named to the rating agency's newly created position of structured finance global surveillance coordinator. Mr. Polanksy will work closely with the rating agency's surveillance and line-of-business managers to enhance the monitoring of Moody's-rated structured deals, Moody's said. "Over the past several years, as the number of rated deals outstanding has grown rapidly, so has our investment of resources in the monitoring of those ratings," said Moody's executive vice president Noel Kirnon. "We have transferred a significant number of analysts and management resources to surveillance teams globally, and this latest appointment is another example of our commitment to this important area." Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

Digital Risk LLC, a risk mitigation firm based in Maitland, Fla., has named former Credit Suisse conduit and credit products group founder Bruce Miller as the head of its structured finance consultancy practice in New York. Mr. Miller was most recently managing director and group head at ING Capital Markets. Before his post at Credit Suisse, he headed the securitization group at The Daiwa Bank, Ltd., where he ran the firm's U.S. securitization business.

Christopher Mortello has been named managing director of structured finance surveillance overseeing the asset-backed and residential mortgage-backed securities portfolios of Assured Guaranty Corp., New York. Mr. Mortello, who previously spent over 10 years at Assured underwriting structured finance transactions, has over 18 years of experience in financial services, 14 of which were in asset securitization, the company said. Most recently, he was head of ABS at PMI Guaranty Co. Assured, a subsidiary of Assured Guaranty Ltd., can be found on the Web at http://www.assured guaranty.com.

Peter Reisert, a 15-year veteran of real estate finance, has been named senior vice president of capital markets at Arbor Commercial Mortgage LLC, Uniondale, N.Y. In the newly created position, Mr. Reisert will oversee the day-to-day operations of the Capital Markets Department and be responsible for identifying new lending partners and developing new lending programs, the company said. Before joining Arbor, Mr. Reisert served as director of capital markets with Centerline Capital Group. He previously held posts with CharterMac Mortgage Capital, PW Funding Inc., and BankAmerica Mortgage.

Lee Y. Moriwaki has been promoted from executive vice president to senior executive vice president of mortgage banking at Bank of Hawaii Corp. and will become a member of the bank's Managing Committee. Mr. Moriwaki, who is responsible for consumer lending as well as mortgage banking, reports to Peter S. Ho, who has been promoted to president of the bank, the company said. Mr. Moriwaki has been with the bank for more than 25 years and has served in management positions in retail banking, finance and investments, trust operations, and information systems and technology. The bank can be found on the Web at https://www.boh.com.

Thomas Marano, former senior managing director and global head of mortgages and asset-backed securities for Bear Stearns & Co., has been named nonexecutive chairman of Residential Capital LLC, the parent of GMAC Mortgage and its other residential affiliates. Mr. Marano succeeds former chairman Michael Rossi, who recently resigned from the board for medical reasons. In addition to joining the ResCap board, Mr. Marano has been appointed to the company's executive committee, where he will serve with ResCap chief executive Jim Jones.

Sarah Hulbert, former chairwoman of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, has been named president of Senior Financial Corp., Rocklin, Calif. Ms. Hulbert "will lead a team of industry experts in the expansion of SFC into a nationwide leader of reverse mortgage retail banking," the company said. SFC currently operates in eight states. Ms. Hulbert was most recently senior vice president and director of wholesale lending for EverBank Reverse Mortgage LLC. She is a 16-year veteran of the reverse mortgage banking industry, SFC said. The company can be found online at http;//www.sfcreverse.com.