Fitch Ratings announced Wednesday that industry veteran John DeLuca joined the agency in February. His responsibilities are to build and maintain relationships with issuers, bankers, and financial advisers as the agency seeks to expand its presence in the U.S. public finance market.
DeLuca was previously a senior vice president and the director of marketing for municipal bond insurer Radian Asset Assurance Inc., where we worked for 15 years beginning in 1994.
He signed on with Fitch in New York as a senior director covering the Northeast and Midwest regions.
"He's been a long-time industry participant with experience in various facets of the market working with investors, bankers, dealers, and issuers, and he'll serve in the same capacity here in the Northeast and Midwest regions," said Dan Champeau, managing director in public finance and global infrastructure finance.
Fitch also announced that James Mitchell, a senior director in Tampa, has moved from the health care analytical group to the business and relationship management group. He is now responsible for all business aspects of the health care sector on a national basis.
"John and Jim each bring significant industry expertise to our group and these hires further strengthen our commitment to the municipal market," Champeau said in a press release.
In an interview he said Fitch has begun reorganizing operations to focus not only on a regional basis but also on sectors.
"Previously our public finance business and relationship management group was structured solely on a regional-geographic basis, but we have now reorganized the group to add revenue bond sector expertise and focus — for sectors such as health care, higher education, housing, and transportation, among others — to our traditional regional alignment," he said.
The development is just one recent move by the agency.
On Monday, Fitch lifted its ratings on over 38,000 municipal bond issues as it begins recalibrating munis to a global ratings scale. The change will likely give many issuers de facto higher ratings, as municipal bonds have historically low default rates relative to corporate debt.
Any bond rated A-plus or higher secured by full faith and credit from a state or local government will be upgraded a notch, Fitch said. Any state or local GO bond rated from BBB-minus to A will be raised two notches.
