PHILADELPHIA, Mar 17, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Janney Montgomery Scott LLC ("Janney"), a leading regional full-service financial services firm, today announced that it has named former Bear Stearns executive Brent Giese to head the firm's newly created whole loan initiative. Joining Giese is former Bear colleague, James Stauss. The new practice compliments Janney's already strong community bank business by providing customers with an additional tool to profitably implement balance sheet strategies. The move is part of a broader expansion as Janney also added three high profile hires in the fixed income sales and trading area.

Mr. Giese and Mr. Stauss, both named managing directors at Janney, have nearly 50 years of industry experience between them. At Janney the two will team with existing financial institutions (FIG) professionals to provide comprehensive loan portfolio solutions and execution for clients in the banking sector. For 10 years at Bear, Giese was a Managing Director and Head of the Mortgage Origination Group; previous experience includes six years at both UBS and JP Morgan. Stauss most recently was VP, Institutional Sales at Raymond James & Associates. Previously he spent 4 years as a Managing Director at Bear Sterns, he also spent time at PNC Mortgage Securities and GE Capital Mortgage Corporation.

"Buying and selling loans is a rapidly growing area for regional and community banks and this initiative allows us to further address the needs of our clients in a challenging market with a critical new capability," said Steve Genyk, Managing Director, Head of Fixed Income at Janney. "Brent and Jim are two of the industry's top whole loan experts. They represent the perfect compliment to our existing offerings by providing comprehensive solutions to mitigate loan issues and losses. This new initiative is only part of the aggressive ongoing growth in our fixed income group and in Janney's capital markets practice in general."

Janney also announced that it has added three veterans to its fixed income sales and trading practice in recent months:

Katrina Griessman was hired as a director, fixed income sales, in Atlanta, GA. She joins Janney with more than 25 years in the industry. Most recently she was with Atlanta-based fixed income boutique Angel Oak Capital Partners. Previously Ms. Griessman was at Keefe Bruyette & Woods as senior vice president, institutional fixed income sales and UBS (Paine Webber) as senior vice president, global fixed income sales.

Austin Derris also joins Janney in an institutional sales role, coming to Janney after several years on Merrill Lynch's institutional fixed income sales team. He joins the firm as a vice president located in Boston, MA.

Christopher Moses rounds out the firm's recent hires, joining the firm as vice president non-Agency MBS trading. Mr. Moses most recently served as vice president at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He also served in trading roles at Washington Mutual Capital Corporation and The Winter Group earlier in his career.

Janney's Capital Markets unit has added a total of 55 professionals in the past year, representing a net 42 percent increase and demonstrating the firm's ongoing commitment to aggressive growth while providing deeper service and expertise to its client base.

About Janney Montgomery Scott LLC:

Established in 1832, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC provides comprehensive financial advice and superior service to individual, corporate and institutional investors. A full-service, financial services firm, Janney is committed to providing our clients advice through a wealth management approach by focusing on the delivery of strategic financial plans that utilize a variety of financial products and services best suited to help meet their financial goals. Janney is equally committed to providing our corporate and institutional clients objective advice for the successful execution of their unique business plans. Janney provides advice and service to clients through a network of professionals in branch offices located along the entire east coast. Janney is an independently operated subsidiary of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, the seventh largest mutual insurance company in the nation, and is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Securities Investor Protection Corporation.

SOURCE: Janney Montgomery Scott LLC