Amherst Continues to Bolster RMBS Presence

Amherst Securities Group, an Austin-based broker-dealer specializing in residential mortgage-backed securities, is on a roll. The company has been using the industry-wide downturn in RMBS markets to poach top talent from pretty much everywhere, announcing last week that it had hired well-known industry analysts Laurie Goodman as managing director. But Amherst wasn’t done there, and announced Monday that it has hired Timothy Dooley as head of non-sgency RMBS trading; Dooley previously worked at Lehman Brothers as a senior vice president of mortgagetrading. Like Goodman, he will be based out of Amherst’s New York City office, the company said in a press statement. “With RMBS markets becoming increasingly complex and relationship-driven, Tim’s deep product knowledge and banking experience will enable us to expand our spectrum of services and build on the momentum established by our veteran team,” said Sean Dobson, CEO of Amherst. “Over the course of his career, Tim has worked across virtually the entire spectrum of residential finance — experience that I believe will prove invaluable to both Amherst and our clients.” Dooley worked at Lehman Brothers for 11 years prior to joining Amherst; obviously, he was sent looking for other work when Lehman filed for backruptcy earlier this year. And while the firm didn’t come out and say it, the appointment speaks volumes about market participant’s expecations for the private-party market — insofar as it may soon become a high-yield market place of bad debt looking to trade at fire sale prices. HousingWire’s key sources suggest that sellers haven’t yet begun looking to unload assets, but with the Treasury recently signaling an unwillingness to buy the securities via the $700 billion TARP vehicle, market participants have returned to prepping to do the work themselves. Write to Paul Jackson at paul.jackson@housingwire.com.