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Ralph P. Melbourne has been named senior vice president of the Consumer Direct Division of Home123 Corp., a retail lending subsidiary of New Century Financial Corp., a real estate investment trust based in Irvine, Calif.Mr. Melbourne has nearly 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry, most recently as director of strategic initiatives for Washington Mutual Inc. He was previously director of retail lending at WaMu, and spent 13 years at Citibank in various senior management roles, New Century said. The company can be found online at http://www.ncen.com.

Michael Edwards, group executive vice president and treasurer of Citizens Bank of Rhode Island and Citizens Financial Group Inc., has been elected to the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.Mr. Edwards was elected to a three-year directorship that had been redesignated by the Federal Housing Finance Board from Connecticut to Rhode Island effective Jan. 1, 2007. The Finance Board redesignated one of the two Connecticut seats, creating a second Rhode Island seat, in response to an increase in proportionate shareholdings of the bank's Rhode Island members, the FHLBank said. The bank can be found on the Web at http://www.fhlbboston.com.

David Lowman has been named chief executive officer of the Global Mortgage business of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a member of the Executive Committee.Mr. Lowman, a 25-year veteran of the lending and mortgage industries, has been president and CEO of CitiFinancial International since 2004. Chase said Mr. Lowman will work with other executives to develop an international consumer finance strategy. The company can be found online at http://www.chase.com.

Angelo R. Mozilo, chairman and chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial Corp., has agreed to continue as chairman and CEO through the end of 2009, the company has announced.The terms of the new contract were not disclosed. Stanford L. Kurland, who was once considered a possible heir to Mr. Mozilo as CEO, resigned from the company recently as president and chief operating officer and was replaced by David Sambol, a 21-year veteran of Countrywide. Mr. Mozilo had indicated that he planned to stay on as chairman, but it was unclear whether he would remain as CEO beyond the end of this year. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Michael A. DeVico, executive vice president and chief information officer of Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorporation, has been elected to the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle.Mr. DeVico will serve a three-year term, as will two other directors who were re-elected to the board. They are Craig Dahl, president and chief executive officer of Alaska Pacific Bank in Juneau, Alaska, and Russell J. Lau, vice chairman and chief executive of Finance Factors Ltd., Honolulu. The Seattle FHLBank can be found on the Web at http://www.fhlbsea.com.

Regina Lowrie, outgoing chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association, has joined The Prieston Group, a Novato, Calif.-based provider of mortgage fraud insurance, as a principal.Ms. Lowrie, a 29-year veteran of the mortgage banking industry, is currently president and chief executive officer of RML Investments Inc., a consulting firm. She was previously the founder and president of Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Co., Horsham, Pa. "I believe mortgage fraud against lenders is one of the most troubling issues facing our industry today and that TPG's promotion of industrywide best practices is a key component in addressing this problem," Ms. Lowrie said. TPG, which also provides fraud-related training and loss mitigation, can be found on the Web at http://www.priestongroup.com.

Robert Vahradian has joined Golden Tree InSite Partners, a New York-based international real estate investment firm, as a partner and managing director.Mr. Vahradian was most recently president of Allied Partners, a private New York-based real estate investment company. He was previously chief operating officer and principal of The Athena Group, a residential investment and development company in New York, and a director in Credit Suisse First Boston's real estate investment banking group, according to Golden Tree.

Barclays Capital has hired a longtime Nomura Securities International agency mortgage researcher, and Nomura's continued participation in the agency MBS market appears questionable.Art Frank, Nomura's former director of MBS, has been named director and mortgage strategist at Barclays, according to the latter company. A Nomura spokesman had not returned a call by deadline time, and efforts to reach the company's agency MBS team through its switchboard were met with uncertainty about whether the business was still offering services in that area.

Veteran mortgage banker Jon Daurio, a co-founder of Encore Credit Corp., has been added to the staff of The Prieston Group, San Rafael, Calif., which offers fraud protection, mitigation, and indemnification services.Mr. Daurio will focus on institutional sales, strategic enterprise planning, and acting as liaison to Prieston's affiliated legal group, the risk management consulting company said. He served in various executive roles at Encore, a wholesale residential mortgage banker, and its parent company, ECC Capital Corp. Mr. Daurio was previously a co-founder of Park Place Capital Corp., a special services company that included a scratch-and-dent business; president and chief executive officer of Loan Funding Corp. of America, a residential mortgage banker; co-founder of Financing USA, the consumer direct-lending division of Long Beach Mortgage Co.; and senior vice president and corporate counsel at Long Beach Mortgage. Prieston can be found online at http://www.priestongroup.com.

Freddie Mac has named Anthony "Buddy" Piszel its new permanent chief financial officer, effective Nov. 13.A former CFO and executive vice president for Health Net Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif., Mr. Piszel replaces Martin Baumann, who resigned in March but stayed on as a consultant. As CFO, Mr. Piszel will oversee Freddie's financial reporting and controls, and related duties, including annual budgeting. He will also carry an executive vice president title at the government-sponsored enterprise. Still recovering from an accounting scandal that started three years ago, Freddie Mac is not current on its financial reporting, but recently released an estimate on first-half earnings. During his career, Mr. Piszel has worked for Prudential Financial and Deloitte & Touche. Freddie Mac can be found online at http://www.freddiemac.com.