Kensington Mortgage Company, a U.K. non-conforming mortgage lender, has hired Chris Marks from Barclays Capital as head of structured finance. Marks will be responsible for Kensington's substantial residential mortgage-backed securititzation business as well as the development of the company's internal structured finance activities, says Simon Kingdon, London-based group finance director.
Kensington has completed 16 RMBS deals since 1996 totalling £3.9 billion. The firm also advises other issuers on their transactions. Kingdon says Kensington is considering getting into buying and selling whole loans, but said this is not on the immediate agenda.
Marks, who had been a director in Barclays' financial institution securitization group, will report to Kingdon. He replaces Tim Cooley who left Kensington last October. Kingdon says he was taking his time to replace Cooley and couldn't be more pleased with Marks: "Chris comes from Barclays with a deeper and broader knowledge of the markets.