by Tanta on 5/26/2007 11:17:00 AM

Via Bloomberg:

May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Matthew Whalen, who was responsible for providing lines of credit to mortgage lenders and turning their loans into bonds, said he resigned from the firm earlier this month.

Whalen, 42, was part of a group that helped New York-based Merrill become the largest creator of subprime mortgage bonds just as delinquencies soared. Merrill's $1.3 billion purchase of First Franklin Financial Corp. in December was the biggest of a U.S. home lender to people with poor credit or high debt.

``I waited until the market felt like it was calming down to make my exit,'' Whalen, a managing director who was also responsible for persuading lenders to sell their mortgages to Merrill, said in an interview.