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Fifth Third Bank has named Steven Alonso as executive vice president and head of the company's mortgage and consumer lending lines of business. Mr. Alonso previously was founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Oakstreet Mortgage LLC, Indianapolis. Prior to that he served as president and CEO of Bank One's Consumer Finance Group. At Fifth Third, Mr. Alonso will develop strategy for the mortgage, consumer lending, student loan and collections areas and will work with his direct reports to implement that strategy.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union of Manhattan Beach, Calif., has hired Jess Lederman, a former Bear Stearns executive who recently departed as chief risk officer of Countrywide Financial Corp. According to a press release issued by the CU, Mr. Lederman will serve as senior vice president and chief credit officer. On July 1 CFC was bought by Bank of America. Mr. Lederman will oversee Kinecta's credit policy, analytics, and loan underwriting for commercial, real estate and consumer lending. He also will have responsibility for portfolio management and secondary marketing.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has made several key appointments in its effort to oversee Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. James Lockhart, director of the FHFA, said the new agency, which combines resources from the former Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the Federal Housing Finance Board, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's government-sponsored enterprise mission team, has great challenges amid the turmoil in the nation's housing markets. "As a new regulatory body, we will be working together to create a new and stronger regulator that will enhance market confidence in the 14 GSEs by ensuring that their oversight is both robust and authoritative," he said. OFHEO veterans Edward DeMarco has been named chief operating officer and deputy director for housing mission and goals; Stephen Cross has been named deputy director of the division of Federal Home Loan Bank regulation; Chris Dickerson has been named deputy director for the division of enterprise regulation, and David Lee has been named the FHFA's chief administrative officer.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has named Catherine Cruz Wojtasik associate vice president of legislative affairs. Among other duties, Ms. Wojtasik will focus her efforts on commercial mortgage issues as they affect MBA's members. She joins the trade group from Popular, Inc. where she served as vice president and director of government affairs. She will report to Francis Creighton, MBA's vice president and chief lobbyist.

National Consumer Cooperative Bank of Washington has promoted Munevver Yolas to senior vice president of capital markets. In her new position Ms. Yolas will manage multiple private, agency, Small Business Administration and commercial real estate loan sales up to $250 million. She also will oversee the bank's capital markets department, keeping an eye on gain-on-sale profits and working with investors and the rating agents.

Former Mortgage Bankers Association chairwoman Regina M. Lowrie has joined the advisory board of Salient Business Solutions, a leading provider of business process outsourcing services based in Gurgaon, India. Ms. Lowrie is currently the president and chief executive of Vision Mortgage Capital LLC, as well as RML Investments Inc., a consulting firm serving the financial services industry. Prior to forming Vision Mortgage Capital, she was president of Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services. "The addition of Ms. Lowrie to the advisory board is a signal to the mortgage industry that Salient is developing a significant presence in the market," said Manoj Malhotra, chief executive of Salient Business Solutions. "The advisory board members regularly provide us with their domain expertise, and our executive team draws upon that experience when making strategic decisions and developing our road map for the expansion of the company. As we seek to expand our presence in the mortgage industry, Ms. Lowrie's insight will prove to be invaluable."

Edmund Hoyt has been named interim chief financial officer of General Growth Properties Inc., a Chicago-based real estate investment trust. Mr. Hoyt, who has served as senior vice president and chief accounting officer of the company since 2000, succeeds Bernard Freibaum, who is no longer employed by the REIT. GGP announced that all continuing executive officers have informed the company that they have repaid in full all margin loans, and therefore "there will be no further sales of company stock by those executive officers to satisfy margin calls." Citing the uncertainty and volatility in the capital markets, the shopping center REIT said its board has decided to suspend the payment of common stock dividends.

Michael A. Gerber has been appointed acting president and chief executive officer of the Washington-based Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., succeeding Henry D. Edelman. Mr. Gerber will continue to serve as CEO of Farm Credit of Western New York, an association in the Farm Credit System. In conjunction with Mr. Gerber's appointment, the board of Farmer Mac has formed an Executive Committee of the Board consisting of Mr. Gerber; Lowell L. Junkins, acting chairman of the board; and Dennis A. Everson, president of the Agri-business Division of First Dakota National Bank. Farmer Mac said the committee will work closely with Mr. Gerber and others at the government-sponsored enterprise regarding the company's operations, capital structure, and the search for a permanent CEO. The GSE can be found online at http://www.farmermac.com.

Two mortgage industry veterans from The Murrayhill Co., a 1990s-era third-party credit risk management firm, have reunited to form a new due-diligence venture supportive of whole loan trading and bond-buying decisions. Murrayhill founder Sue Allon will serve as chief executive officer of Allon Financial, the new Denver-based venture. Daniel Gallery has been named the new company's president. Allon Financial also has acquired Edison Mortgage Decisioning Solutions, a due-diligence and data/analytics reporting company, including the mortgage analysts from EMDS's staff and EMDS's proprietary due-diligence technology.

Amy Brandt, who was the chief executive officer of WMC Mortgage Co. during that alternative-A lender's salad days, has returned to the industry by buying two servicers and an Internet originator. Vantium Capital Inc., her private-equity firm, was planning to announce that it has acquired the assets of Strategic Recovery Group LLC, a Plano, Texas-based company that collects on defaulted and charged-off debts; its Acqura Loan Services LLC, which manages subprime portfolios; and Strategic Recovery's online-only lending business, which uses the brand name Go Financial Solutions. Vantium, a New York company, would not make executives available for interviews. In a press release, Ms. Brandt said, "We will use these companies as a platform to develop, or acquire, new businesses that will serve the financial and investment markets." The firm did not say how much it paid for any of the assets. It has financial backing from Leon Black's Apollo Global Management LLC, the New York private-equity firm that sold WMC Mortgage to General Electric Co. in 2004. Acqura is to service assets bought by a Vantium fund managed by Michael Commaroto, the former head of private-label mortgage-backed securities at Deutsche Bank AG, Vantium said.