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National City Corp. has announced that Paul "Buck" Bibb will retire as chief executive officer of National City Mortgage Co. in the first quarter of 2008 and will be succeeded by Joe Cartellone, currently president of National City Mortgage.Mr. Bibb joined National City Mortgage as executive vice president and national production manager in 1997 and was named CEO in 2004. He began his mortgage banking career in 1973 with the Commonwealth Corp. in Tallahassee, Fla. Mr. Cartellone joined National City Mortgage in April of this year when he was named president and chief operating officer. He was previously senior vice president and national sales manager of National City Home Equity, a division of National City Corp. that has since merged into National City Mortgage. Mr. Cartellone has more than 26 years of experience in mortgage banking and consumer lending, and held various positions at Chase Manhattan Mortgage.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight has promoted its chief examiner, Christopher H. Dickerson, to head the agency's supervision division.Mr. Dickerson is a 10-year OFHEO veteran, and during that time Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's top executives were ousted due to accounting scandals and the two mortgage giants have rebuilt their accounting systems and internal controls. "Chris's in-depth knowledge of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the people, problems, and progress -- will enhance OFHEO's efforts to ensure the future safety and soundness of these important institutions," OFHEO Director James Lockhart said. The new supervision director replaces Len Reid, who retired recently.

American Securitization Forum associate director Tom Deutsch, an attorney with a background in residential mortgage-backed securities, has been promoted to deputy executive director of the group.Prior to joining the forum, Mr. Deutsch served as a lawyer in the capital markets department of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, where he represented issuers and underwriters in various structured finance offerings, including RMBS deals. He also previously served as an associate at McKee Nelson LLP, where he focused on RMBS. The ASF can be found on the Web at http://www.americansecuritization.com.

Morgan Stanley co-president Zoe Cruz, who rose in the firm through the fixed-income business segment that includes mortgage-backed securities, is departing the firm as part of a leadership reorganization in the wake of subprime mortgage-related writedowns at the company.Ms. Cruz, 52, has been considered one of Wall Street's more notable women executives and a one-time rising star at the firm. Also in connection with the reorganization, Walid A. Chammah and James P. Gorman are becoming co-presidents, and Robert Scully is joining a newly created Office of the Chairman. In addition, Michael "Mitch" Petrick is to oversee the firm's trading business and serve as co-head of institutional securities sales and trading, alongside Jerker Johansson; and Neal Shear has been named chairman of the firm's commodities business.

John P. Barnes has been named group vice president for residential services of LandAmerica Financial Group, a provider of real estate transaction services based in Richmond, Va.Mr. Barnes is an 18-year veteran of the mortgage industry who served most recently as executive vice president of sales at Dexma Inc., a mortgage software provider whose mortgage origination technology subsidiary he previously managed, LandAmerica said. He has also held positions at various other companies, including director of mortgage technology services at Freddie Mac. LandAmerica Financial can be found on the Web at http://www.landam.com.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., Ocala, Fla., has hired Stuart L. Scott as its chief operating officer.Mr. Scott previously was the chief information officer for Microsoft and held several executive roles with General Electric Co. TBW is a wholesale mortgage lender.

MortgageWire has learned that veteran e-mortgage expert Tim Anderson has been hired as president and chief executive of Houston-based SigniaDocs.Mr. Anderson will be charged with developing a platform based on mortgage investor guidelines that go beyond Fannie Mae electronic quality control guidelines to actually warrant compliance, leveraging Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization SMART Docs. He said he welcomes the opportunity to prove the value of electronic mortgages as a fundamental cure for flaws in the mortgage creation process revealed in the ongoing mortgage meltdown, which brought a cascade of buybacks related to compliance. Signia boasts of having built its system "from the ground up as three-tier, very secure, completely browser-based, backed by a wealth of experience" through a management team of mortgage industry veterans. Mr. Anderson was most recently employed by Stewart. SigniaDocs can be found online at http://www.signiadocs.com.

Merrill Lynch has named John Thain, a former Goldman Sachs executive with roots in the mortgage-backed securities business, as its new chief executive officer.Mr. Thain, chief executive and member of the management committee of NYSE Euronext and former president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, is slated to take the post at Merrill starting Dec. 1. A number of news reports indicate that Mr. Thain was among those at Goldman who started an MBS business there in the 1980s and that he had been eyed for a leadership post at Citigroup, a Wall Street firm that -- like Merrill -- saw its top executive depart after a huge subprime-linked loss.

Fremont General Corp., Santa Monica, Calif., has put in place a new executive management team in the wake of the failure of a deal involving an investment in the company by Gerald J. Ford.The new chairman and chief executive is Stephen H. Gordon, the former chairman and chief executive of Commercial Capital Bancorp Inc., Irvine, Calif., until its sale to Washington Mutual Inc. in October 2006. Several other former CCBI executives are joining Fremont, including David S. DePillo, vice chairman and president; Richard A. Sanchez, executive vice president and chief administrative officer; Thea Stuedli, EVP and chief financial officer; and Donald E. Royer, EVP and general counsel. Mr. Gordon is the chairman and chief executive of Vitruvian Group LP, which in turn is the general partner of Vitruvian Financial Partners LP. The latter will focus on investing in regulated financial institutions in need of capital. Mr. DePillo developed the multifamily and commercial real estate lending platforms at CCBI and is the former vice president and director of multifamily banking at Home Savings of America. Mr. Sanchez is a former deputy regional director for the Office of Thrift Supervision. Fremont can be found online at http://www.fremontgeneral.com.

Reverse Mortgage Solutions Inc., a Houston-based servicer, subservicer, technology, and consulting firm, has acquired Mortgage Asset Systems LLC, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. As part of the acquisition, MA Systems president and chief information officer Kevin Gherardi has joined RMS as CIO and executive vice president. RMS said Mr. Gherardi has planned and implemented aspects of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's mortgage servicing system to support several reverse mortgage products as well as systems that support conventional mortgage products. The company can be found online at http://www.rmsnav.com.