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Jim Brady has been named senior vice president of national title operations at Lenders First Choice, a provider of settlement services and title insurance headquartered in Simi Valley, Calif.The company said Mr. Brady was most recently a division manager for Commerce Title Co., a division of Centex, and previously held executive positions with The Associates/CitiGroup, First American, and LandSafe. Lenders First Choice can be found on the Web at http://www.lendersfirstchoice.com.

The CSI Cos., a Jacksonville, Fla.-based staffing firm, recently announced the addition of mortgage industry veteran Deane W. Hall to its board of directors.Mr. Hall has more than 30 years of experience in the mortgage industry, including senior management positions with Fannie Mae, CSI said. He retired from JP Morgan Chase in April 2006 after 17 years of management responsibility with its mortgage subsidiary, Chase Home Finance, including service as an executive vice president and a member of the board. CSI said it works with a wide range of companies nationwide and has been "particularly successful" in working with the mortgage/banking industry in the Southeast. It can be found online at http://www.thecsicompanies.com.

Steve Bredeson has been named director of home equity lending at Greystone Residential Funding Inc., a mortgage banking company based in Middleton, Wis.Mr. Bredeson has more than 25 years of experience as a banking executive in Chicago and elsewhere in the Midwest, Greystone said. He was most recently the manager of Banco Popular's Broker Home Equity Program. Greystone can be found on the Web at http://www.greystonerf.com.

Bruce Legan has been named senior managing director of consulting services at Clayton Holdings, a Shelton, Conn.-based provider of information-based analytics, consulting, and outsourced services for lenders, servicers, and other financial firms.For the past four years, Mr. Legan led Ernst & Young's residential mortgage advisory practice as senior manager of its Structured Finance Advisory Services Group. Before joining E&Y, he was a managing director at MBIA Insurance Corp. and he worked for GMAC Mortgage, setting up its third-party residential mortgage special servicing division, Clayton said. Mr. Legan also worked at GMAC/Residential Funding Corp., where he managed the sales and purchases of mortgage loans in the secondary market. Clayton can be found online at http://www.clayton.com.

David Frase has been named executive vice president of mortgage warehousing at Southwest Securities FSB, a bank based in Arlington, Texas.Mr. Frase was most recently with Texas Capital Bank, where he established a national warehousing program, Southwest Securities said. He was previously a senior vice president of mortgage services at Providence Bank. Southwest Securities is a subsidiary of SWS Group Inc., which can be found online at http://www.swsgroupinc.com.

American Financial Realty Trust, Jenkintown, Pa., has named Harold W. Pote, a member of the company's board of trustees, the new president and chief executive officer, effective immediately.Mr. Pote replaces Nicholas S. Schorsch, who has resigned as CEO, president and vice chairman of the board by mutual agreement with the board of trustees. In conjunction with his appointment, Mr. Pote outlined several broad initiatives that came out of the strategic review to reposition the company including: accelerating asset sales as AFR will aggressively market and dispose of non-core assets and selected other assets that are not central to its customer relationships, but offer an opportunity to unlock shareholder value. The company estimates that this could result in gross sale proceeds of between $1.5 and $2 billion. Also, AFR will look to rationalize liabilities and use net proceeds from these sales to fund future accretive asset acquisitions and implementation of the previously approved $100 million stock repurchase program. In addition the company will match dividend payout to operating cash flow, reduce MG&A and improve reporting transparency.

Tom Wind, the CEO of Chase Home Finance, Iselin, N.J., has left the company to take a position with Lehman Brothers, industry sources confirmed to MortgageWire.A source close to the situation told MW that Chase sent out an internal memo on Mr. Wind's departure, but has yet to announce the change publicly. "He's a good guy and we'll miss him," said the source. He left the lender/servicer about a week ago. Chase Home Finance, an affiliate of J.P. Morgan Chase, has yet to name a successor. CHF is the nation's fourth largest residential funder, according to the Quarterly Data Report.

Treasury Under Secretary Randal Quarles, the Bush administration's point man on GSE reform, has served notice that he plans to return to the private sector after Congress adjourns for the year.The under secretary for domestic finance has served in the administration for five years. He is working on a debt-approval process that would allow the Treasury to limit the debt issuance of the three big housing government-sponsored enterprises -- Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. "I was disappointed to learn when I arrived [in early July] that Randy had long planned to return to the private sector," Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said. "But I am fortunate that he has agreed to be very active in helping me formulate my policy agenda, and over the long term I will continue to rely on his advice and consent." Before joining the Bush administration, Mr. Quarles was co-head of the financial institutions group at the law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell.

David Spector has been named managing director and head of the Pan-European residential mortgage business in Morgan Stanley's Securitized Products Group.Mr. Spector joins Morgan Stanley after 16 years at Countrywide Financial Corp., where he was most recently senior managing director of capital markets. He will be based in London and will be responsible for expanding Morgan Stanley's residential mortgage business in Europe, the company said.

Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, a housing subcommittee chairman who has been tainted by the congressional lobbying scandal, has dropped his re-election bid for a seventh term and plans to step down in January."After much consideration and thought, I have decided to no longer seek re-election," Rep. Ney said. His ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe congressmen, have dogged Rep. Ney for the past year. It is understood that federal prosecutors are considering bringing possible charges against the Ohio congressman. "Congressman Ney's decision is a political and practical one and not a legal one," his attorney said. "Congressman Ney has done nothing wrong, and there is no credible basis to charge him with a violation of law." Rep. Ney chairs the housing subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.