Former Bear Strategist to Head DB's Securitization Research

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. has named Wall Street veteran Steve Abrahams as its new chief of securitization/MBS research within the firm's global markets division. Mr. Abrahams, most recently founder and a managing director at Citadel Capital Partners, will carry the title of managing director. During his career, he also worked at Bear Stearns as global head of liquid product strategy, and at Freddie Mac as a credit portfolio manager. Art Frank, who had been DB's director and head of mortgage-backed securities research, has left the company. Mr. Frank could not be reached for comment. Also departing DB is Karen Weaver, who headed securitization research. Ms. Weaver, one of the first on Wall Street to predict the housing bubble and mortgage crash, is retiring. A longtime mortgage researcher, Mr. Frank previously worked for Barclays Capital and for several years headed MBS research for Nomura Securities. In addition to Mr. Abrahams, Deutsche Bank Securities recently hired Dominic Konstam as global head of rates research. Mr. Konstam comes to the firm from Credit Suisse where he was in charge of global interest rate research.