Assured Guaranty Adds Former PMI ABS Chief

The monoline subsidiary of Assured Guaranty Ltd (AGO) said Wednesday that Christopher Mortello had rejoined the firm as managing director of structured finance surveillance — a new role that will see Mortello oversee the company’s ABS and RMBS portfolios. Mortello, who previously spent over 10 years at Assured underwriting structured finance transactions, will now be focusing on portfolio surveillance, remediation and reporting for the structured finance portfolio. “We are very excited to have Chris re-join Assured in this new role that will focus on managing the ABS and RMBS surveillance activities,” said Andrew Pickering, chief surveillance officer at Assured Guaranty. “His in-depth knowledge of the financial guaranty market and structured finance transactions will enhance the risk management capabilities of the Company.” Mortello has over 18 years of experience in financial services, 14 of which were in asset securitization. Most recently, he was head of ABS at PMI Guaranty Co. and was responsible for developing, structuring and analyzing structured finance transactions for financial guaranty insurance, credit default swaps and reinsurance. For more information, visit http://www.assuredguaranty.com. Disclosure: The author held no positions in AGO when this story was originally published. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.