Bear Stearns Repo Boss Goes To Hedge Fund

By John Carney

We’re still closely following the career paths of the refugees from the collapse of Bear Stearns. Last night we learned that Matt Chasin, who ran repo financing activities for mortgage and structured products at Bear Stearns, has been hired as chief operating officer by Sorin Capital.
Chasin’s duties in this newly created position will be to manage all funding and borrowing for the firm. We’re sure Chasin’s a swell guy but we couldn’t help but gasp a bit at the audacity of placing him . Chasin’s role at Bear would have placed him at the center of the funding , debt and risk management problems that many believe brought down the bank. The guy was running SIVs for Bear.
This hire seems largely a vote of confidence in the “run on the bank” theory or perhaps even the “Bear was assassinated” theory that exculpates Bear executives. Sorin Capital founder Jim Higgins is a former Bear Stearns executive himself. He ran Bear’s commercial mortgage business, and started his career as a mortgage lender. Sorin Capital is riddled with former Bear Stearns employees. Sources familiar with the matter say that Chasin had considered moving to Sorin prior to the collapse of Bear in March.
It’s also a sign of how hedge funds are leaping on the opportunity to higher bankers dislocated by the credit crisis.
Update: We’re told that Sorin Capital made a mint shorting MBS and CMBS over the past two years, the same period hedge funds run out of Bear were taking long MBS positions that would eventually help undermine confidence in the bank.
Sorin Snags Former Bear Stearns Exec. [FinAlternatives]

Comments (8)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 4:09 PM

    Busy day, Carney? You here all by yourself?

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 4:25 PM

    When a firm loses over $15 billion in cash in 48 hours, that’s a run on the bank,unless you happen to run a website and think you know better.

  3. 3
    Posted by redpandot | August 12, 2008 at 4:27 PM

    or its a rounding error

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 4:46 PM

    I agree with 2. Does anyone disagree that there was a run on Bear? The disagreement is over the cause of the run.

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 4:48 PM

    “opportunity to higher bankers ”
    Really?

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 4:52 PM

    Hey, no. 1, it’s clearly been a busy day for John. He’s been posting substantive comments since the early morning. And obviously Bess hasn’t posted today as of this hour. Probably the interns are around somewhere. For God’s sake, man, it’s August. What, exactly, is your point?

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | August 12, 2008 at 5:30 PM

    @4:52– perhaps “Bess hasn’t posted today as of this hour” because she’s on vacation, jackass?

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | August 13, 2008 at 8:15 AM

    this is pretty old information. why is this being posted now as if it were news?

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