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The lender processing division of Fidelity National Information Services Inc., which the company plans to spin off in midyear, will be named Lender Processing Services Inc., the Jacksonville, Fla.-based FNIS has announced. Jeff Carbiener, currently executive vice president and chief financial officer of FNIS, will become president and chief executive officer of the new company. George Scanlon, who recently joined FNIS as executive vice president of finance, will assume the role of CFO of FNIS after the spinoff is complete, the company said. FNIS can be found on the Web at http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com.

Andy Morris has been named executive vice president and commercial real estate director at The South Financial Group Inc., Greenville, S.C. Mr. Morris, most recently an executive vice president at Regions Bank, spent 30 years with SouthTrust Bank and Wachovia (following its acquisition of SouthTrust in 2004). At SouthTrust, Mr. Morris built and led their commercial real estate line of business. At Wachovia, he served as the regional manager for commercial real estate activities in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Conrad Vasquez has been named executive vice president of operations at Clayton Holdings Inc., a Shelton, Conn.-based information and analytics company serving the debt markets. Mr. Vasquez, a 25-year industry veteran, will be responsible for the day-to-day operations for Clayton's due diligence and surveillance businesses and will focus on increasing operational productivity, improving service quality, and expanding product offerings, the company said. Mr. Vasquez joins Clayton after five years with Washington Mutual, where he was most recently an executive vice president and head of retail bank operations. He previously held executive positions at Advanta Bank Corp., First USA, Household Finance, American Express, and Sears.

UBS AG, the corporate parent of Wall Street firm UBS, has named a Morgan Stanley executive to head an investment banking unit that has been wrestling with U.S. mortgage-related writedowns. Jerker Johansson, a vice chairman in Europe for Morgan Stanley, has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer of UBS Investment Bank. UBS, which has dual headquarters in Zurich and Basel, also made three appointments to its executive board: Robert Wolf, chairman and CEO of UBS Group Americas and president and chief operating officer of the investment bank; Alexander Wilmot-Sitwell, joint global head of the investment banking department; and Martin Hoekstra, head of wealth management for the Americas.

Certain directors of Bank of America and Washington Mutual may face an election challenge if they do not provide a satisfactory explanation of what they did "to protect shareholders from excessive mortgage-related risk" in the past two years, according to CtW Investment Group. CtW called for the explanations, and threatened to urge shareholders to vote against the directors, in letters to BoA's Jackie M. Ward, Frank P. Bramble Sr., and Robert L. Tillman and WaMu's Mary Pugh, Stephen E. Frank, and William G. Reed Jr. The six directors sit on the BoA and WaMu committees designated to oversee risk for their respective banks, CtW said. "The meltdown of the U.S. mortgage market is among the worst financial disasters of the past 50 years," said Bill Patterson, executive director of CtW. "At the epicenter of this crisis are Bank of America, Washington Mutual, and four other U.S. banks whose failure to manage mortgage-related risk not only destroyed almost $300 billion in combined shareholder value, but also helped destabilize the global capital markets and precipitate a credit crunch that now threatens to throw the U.S. economy into recession." CtW can be found online at http://www.ctwinvestmentgroup.com.

Frederick Cannon, an equity researcher in the mortgage sector, has been promoted to the newly created positions of associate director of research and chief equity strategist of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. Mr. Cannon, 51, joined KBW in 2003, providing equity research on banks and thrifts specializing in the mortgage sector. He was previously executive vice president and director of investor relations at Golden State Bancorp and its subsidiary, California Federal Bank.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has promoted John Mechem to senior director of public affairs. In this capacity, Mr. Mechem will be responsible for developing and implementing MBA public affairs campaigns, serving as a primary spokesperson for the association and acting as a liaison between MBA and other industry communications representatives. "John's strategic vision and excellent communications skills have made him an invaluable asset to the MBA," said Jonathan Kempner, MBA's president and chief executive officer. "As the mortgage industry continues to evolve, we are very fortunate to have John communicating on behalf of MBA and our members." Mr. Mechem joined MBA in 2006 from the American Forest & Paper Association after serving as director of communications. He has over 12 years of experience in public and legislative affairs. His background includes serving as press secretary for Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., and previously as deputy press secretary for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He began his career as a legislative assistant for Rep. Jay Kim, R-Calif.

Lehman Brothers has seen a changing of the guard at the head of its global fixed income division, a market area generally hit hard by the U.S. mortgage woe-sparked credit crunch. Roger Nagioff has retired, citing personal reasons, and the firm has promoted one of the unit¹s co-chief operating officers, Andrew J. Morton, to succeed him. In addition, Lehman has named as co-heads of fixed income for Europe and the Middle East: Georges Assi, the global head of the collateralized debt obligation and structured credit businesses and head of credit products for Europe and the Middle East; and Kieran Higgins, head of interest rate products for Europe and the Middle East. Both Mr. Higgins and Mr. Assi will continue to serve in their previous roles.

Mortgage Assistance Center Corp., Dallas, has hired Dennis D. Downey as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was the founder and chairman of Downey Capital Corp., where he handled the marketing, structuring and closing of commercial real estate financing transactions using a broad range of funding programs. In the late 1980s into the early 1990s, Mr. Downey was the southwest regional director of servicing and real estate owned activities for Freddie Mac. Mr. Downey also currently serves on the board of Lanier Capital REIT Inc.

Thomas B. Akin, the chairman of Dynex Capital Inc., Glen Allen, Va., has added the chief executive title for the company, effective immediately. "I appreciate the Board's confidence in me to lead Dynex forward as the Company grows and diversifies its investment strategies. The current investment environment is quite friendly to a mortgage REIT investment strategy, and I look forward to the opportunity. We appreciate our shareholders patience over the recent past as we waited for the investment cycle to improve. We are excited about the prospects for Dynex and look forward to growing the Company and increasing value for our shareholders," he said. Separately, Dynex's indirect subsidiary, GLS Capital Inc. received $1.625 million from Allegheny County, Pa. for the sale of substantially all of the remaining tax liens that GLS Capital previously owned in Allegheny County. Additional information about the company is available at http://www.dynexcapital.com.