DBRS has hired Vito Natale from Fitch as senior vice president responsible for managing the rating and surveillance of European covered bond programmes as the rating agency seeks to build up its presence in the asset class.

DBRS has been looking to add to its covered bond team since launching a second push into the market last year. It made its first rating of a covered bond outside its native Canada in December 2011, for Caixa Económica Montepio Geral, and has since rated several other Portuguese programmes as well as Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank’s.

Natale arrives from Fitch, where he was a senior director who managed covered bonds for southern Europe, having joined the rating agency in 2007. Before that he worked as an analyst in the securitisation and product development department at Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation (CMHC).

He will report to Claire Mezzanotte, head of global structured finance at DBRS.