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Katty Chow has been named head of residential mortgage lending at Pacifica Bank, Bellevue, Wash., as part of the bank's effort to enhance its consumer mortgage lending program.Ms. Chow, a senior vice president, said Pacifica has joined forces with locally run mortgage companies that "provide onsite underwriting with Wall Street pricing." John A. Kennedy, president and chief executive officer of Pacifica, said many of the bank's customers are immigrants who are "underserved by the many mortgage companies that have a 'cookie-cutter' approach to mortgage services."

Dennis J. Gilmore, who heads the Property Information Segment of The First American Corp., Santa Ana, Calif., has been named executive vice president of the company.In the new post, Mr. Gilmore will focus on products and services that involve multiple operating segments, First American said. However, he will continue to lead the Property Information Segment, which consists of five subsidiaries, including First American Real Estate Solutions and eAppraiseIT LLC. Parker S. Kennedy, First American's president and chief executive officer, said Mr. Gilmore's "extensive knowledge of title operations, mortgage-related services, and property information technology uniquely qualifies him for this important role." The company can be found online at http://www.firstam.com.

Jack A. Thrift has been hired as chief financial officer of Transnational Financial Network Inc., a wholesale and retail mortgage bank based in San Francisco.Mr. Thrift was previously CFO of two unnamed private brokerage and investment banking firms and an auditor and manager with three major public accounting firms, where he specialized in the financial services industry, Transnational said. The company can be found on the Internet at http://www.transnational.com.

BNP Residential Properties Inc., Charlotte, N.C., has reported the resignation of B. Mayo Boddie, its longtime chairman of the board, and the election of Philip S. Payne, chief financial officer and director, to replace him.The real estate investment trust said Mr. Boddie, who had been chairman since the company's inception in 1987, has been named chairman emeritus and will continue to serve on the board. He resigned to "scale back on his work-related commitments," the REIT said. Mr. Payne will continue to serve as CFO. BNP, an umbrella partnership REIT, can be found online at http://www.bnp-residential.com.

Matthew Weinberg, a veteran mortgage trader, has been named managing director and co-head of the mortgage-backed securities trading desk of Links Securities LLC, New York.The company said Mr. Weinberg replaces George Sykes, who recently joined Guggenheim Partners, a Links affiliate, in fixed-income investment management. Mr. Weinberg was most recently in the arbitrage trading group of Greenwich Capital. He will join Ted Murphy as co-head of the MBS trading desk.

First Magnus Financial Corp., Tucson, Ariz., has announced the hiring of Ed F. Wallace Jr. as senior vice president of its Corporate Wholesale Lending Division.First Magnus said Mr. Wallace will oversee its wholesale expansion efforts in 32 states currently served through the company's centralized wholesale operation. Mr. Wallace has over 25 years of mortgage banking experience, and is credited with creating the wholesale division of one of the nation's leading mortgage lenders, the company said. First Magnus, a privately held multichannel mortgage company, can be found online at http://www.firstmagnus.com.

Brian K. Fitzpatrick has been named chief executive officer of Decade Systems Corp., Jacksonville, Fla., a provider of integration and business connectivity systems for the mortgage industry.The previous CEO, Decade founder Gerry C. Nelson, will continue as chairman of the board, the company said. Mr. Fitzpatrick was most recently executive vice president of sales and marketing for Decade and continues to sit on its board of directors. His previous positions include a stint as senior vice president of sales at GHR Systems Inc., Wayne, Pa.

Timothy O'Neill, who has served on the Federal Housing Finance Board since 1995, has taken a new position at the Department of the Housing and Urban Development.MortgageWire has learned that Mr. O'Neill is now working as a special assistant in the Office of Housing under HUD Assistant Secretary John Weicher. Mr. Weicher usually represents HUD on the five-member Finance Board, which oversees the Federal Home Loan Banks. Alicia R. Castaneda has replaced Mr. O'Neill on the Finance Board. She was confirmed by the Senate Dec. 9 and sworn in as a director on Jan. 9. Born in Colombia, Ms. Castaneda has worked in commercial banking for 27 years, most recently as senior vice president at Bank of America's International Private Bank in Washington, D.C. Mr. O'Neill started at the Finance Board as a director of legislative affairs and later became chairman for six months in 2001.

Home Properties, a real estate investment trust based in Rochester, N.Y., has announced the promotions of four senior officers to the positions of executive vice president and senior vice president.The two new executive vice presidents are David P. Gardner and Ann M. McCormick. Mr. Gardner has served as senior vice president since August 2000 and chief financial officer since the company's inception in 1994, the REIT said. He will retain the title of CFO. Ms. McCormick has also served as senior vice president since August 2000 and as vice president since 1994, and will retain her title as general counsel and secretary. The two new senior vice presidents are Robert J. Luken and Janine M. Schue. Mr. Luken has served as chief financial analyst since February 2002, as treasurer since 2000, and as vice president since 1997. Ms. Schue has served as vice president of human resources since February 2002. The company can be found on the Web at http://www.homeproperties.com.

Fitch Ratings has announced an expansion of its collateralized debt obligation group to provide better performance analytics and customer service.Jill Zelter, a Fitch managing director, said the new organization of the CDO group "will allow Fitch to provide comprehensive and timely surveillance, prospective opinions on future trends, and rigorous analysis and modeling in a more dynamic and robust fashion." Marion Silverman will take on the newly created role of head of performance analytics, and Hedi Katz is filling the new position of head of credit products research. In connection with these changes, John Malysa is transferring from Fitch's commercial mortgage-backed securities group -- where he led the agency's CMBS CDO ratings -- to head up the cash flow CDO team. The credit products group will now manage the rating of CMBS CDOs.