RBC appoints five bankers to its Municipal Finance Housing practice

Michael Baumrin Named New Co-Head of RBC’s Housing Finance Group

NEW YORK, July 2008 — RBC Capital Markets today announced the appointments of Michael Baumrin, Peter Nolden, Mina Choo, Derek McGreal, and Lorry Palacios to its Municipal Finance Housing Capital group. Baumrin will serve as the new co-head of the Housing Finance group along with Helen Feinberg, who joined RBC upon the firm’s acquisition of William R. Hough & Co. in 2004.

Baumrin and Nolden join as managing directors, Choo and McGreal as directors, and Palacios as vice president. Baumrin will be based in New York, the other four in San Francisco. All five join RBC as single-family bankers from UBS. The moves come on the heels of RBC’s announcement last month that it had hired seven former Bear Stearns bankers to its Municipal Finance Healthcare practice.

“This was a terrific opportunity to recruit a talented team of seasoned professionals who we are confident will significantly expand our work with state housing finance agencies nationwide,” said Chris Hamel, head of Municipal Finance for RBC Capital Markets. “This is an important sector for RBC as we continue to grow our municipal finance practice in select, targeted areas that best suit our clients’ needs.”

Baumrin was the head of UBS’ housing group and has been in the housing industry for over 25 years. He joined UBS nine years ago to run the group following 18 years at Merrill Lynch. Baumrin will manage RBC’s single-family efforts with state and local housing finance agencies nationwide. Nolden will serve as a senior single family and multi-family banker for the western U.S. He had been with UBS since 1980, working exclusively in single and multi-family housing with state and local housing finance agencies.

“We are excited to bring our team to the RBC Capital Markets platform,” said Baumrin. “RBC’s outstanding reputation, stability and commitment to the municipal finance business will be of great benefit to help best serve our clients.”

Choo was an executive director in UBS’ housing group for the past 14 years, where she worked on over 150 senior managed housing transactions for 10 state and numerous local housing finance agencies (HFAs). McGreal has over 22 years of experience in the municipal housing market and joined UBS in 1986. During his career he has structured and managed single family and multifamily housing issues, including associated derivative transactions, for numerous state housing finance agencies nationwide, and for local municipalities in California, Colorado and Florida. He was the senior coverage banker in UBS’ San Francisco office. Palacios was an associate director and senior support banker for UBS.

Baumrin will report to Bob Spangler, Head, Western Region & Housing Capital Group for RBC’s Municipal Finance practice. Feinberg, based in St. Petersburg, FL, also reports to Spangler. The addition of the five bankers increases the size of RBC’s Housing Finance group to 24 professionals.

State HFAs are the primary issuers of single family mortgage revenue bonds for first time homebuyers and are established agencies of each state. The total issuance for state HFA bonds in 2007 was approximately $23 billion.