Fannie, Freddie Name CEO for Their Common Securitization Company

Industry veteran David Applegate will serve as the first chief executive officer of Common Securitization Solutions LLC, the new firm co-owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop a common securitization platform for the mortgage secondary market.

In addition, each of the government-sponsored enterprises appointed two executives to serve on CSS's board of managers, and signed governance and operating agreements for the CSS business, the companies announced Nov. 3. From Fannie Mae: Terry Edwards, who is expected to step down from his role as chief operating officer in the first half of 2015, and Rick Sorkin, senior vice president of single-family pricing strategy and structured transactions, and from Freddie Mac: David Lowman, executive vice president, single-family business, and Jerry Weiss, EVP and chief administrative officer.

Applegate was most recently the president and CEO of Homeward Residential, the Dallas-based mortgage lender and servicer that Ocwen Financial Corp. acquired for $750 million from private equity firm WL Ross & Co. in October 2012. Previously, he spent 17 years at the General Motors Acceptance Corporation Mortgage and Bank divisions, serving as president of GMAC Mortgage and chairman of GMAC Bank from 2000-2007. He has also served as president of the mortgage insurer Radian Guaranty Inc.

The common securitization platform was mandated by the GSEs' regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to replace certain elements of Fannie and Freddie's proprietary systems for securitizing mortgages and performing associated back-office and administrative functions, with the goal of developing a single enterprise mortgage-backed security, Fannie and Freddie said in a statement.