Credit Suisse has appointed Dale Westhoff as Global Head of Structured Products Research, based in New York. Westhoff brings significant experience and will focus on delivering the Bank’s exceptional research in mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities and other structured products to clients.
Structured Products is one of Credit Suisse’s best performing businesses, continuing to garner significant market share and top ratings from clients. Westhoff will help strengthen this leadership position in his role as Global Head of Structured Products Research. He will continue to develop the Bank’s market-leading suite of structured product analytics, with a particular emphasis on Credit Suisse’s highly innovative mortgage-backed security prepayment models which are used internally and by clients.
Westhoff is a pioneer in the evolution and growth of the structured products business on Wall Street. Most recently, he was Head of Consumer Modeling teams at JP Morgan. Prior to the merger between Bear Stearns and JP Morgan, he was a Senior Managing Director and Head of Quantitative Research at Bear Stearns. Westhoff joined Bear Stearns in 1990, specialising in analysis and modelling of mortgage-backed security prepayments. Prior to Bear Stearns, he was an aerospace engineer with Hughes Aircraft Company in its Satellite Communications Division. He has dual degrees in Civil Engineering and Computer Science and an MBA from New York University.
Westhoff is well known for his accurate short-term prepayment forecasts and investment strategies in both Agency and non-Agency MBS during the recent periods of record prepayment and credit volatility. Among his many industry accolades, Westhoff was voted "First Team All-America" by Institutional Investor Magazine in the Mortgage-Backed Prepayment/Strategy category for fifteen years in a row. He has also won or ranked in various other categories including Agency Pass-Throughs and Non-Agency Structured Products.