03/02/2012

Hupalo Quits Student-Loan Post at Deutsche

John Hupalo, who spent the past two years trying to revive Deutsche Bank’s student-loan bond underwriting business, has moved on.

Hupalo left the bank in February to start a firm that will offer counseling to students and recent graduates who need help obtaining loans and managing their finances. He calls the Boston operation Invite Education.

Hupalo, perhaps best known as former chief financial officer at education lender First Marblehead, joined Deutsche in August 2010 to fill a void after student-loan securitization head Paul Vambutas left for UBS.

Hupalo’s mandate was to reverse a slide in the volume of student-loan securitizations that Deutsche underwrote. From 2005 to 2007, the bank ran the books on $56.7 billion of deals, according to Asset-Backed Alert’s ABS Database. It then saw its tally drop to $5.8 billion in 2008, $7.1 billion in 2009 — and zero in 2010 and 2011. So far this year, it has led one offering for $276 million.

A big part of Hupalo’s job was working with not-for-profit lenders that have struggled to refinance auction-rate securities. However, Deutsche managed to win only one assignment to refinance auction-rate notes via a term securitization. That deal was a $276 million offering from South Texas Higher Education that priced Jan. 19.

Deutsche has yet to name a replacement for Hupalo.

Hupalo spent five years as First Marblehead’s finance chief, during a period when the Boston firm was a prolific issuer of student-loan bonds. He left in 2008 as the market was unraveling, then started Hupalo Advisory with the idea of aiding distressed education lenders. Before joining Deutsche, he spent about a year at Ramirez Capital of New York, where he co-founded a student-loan restructuring and workout practice.

Earlier in his career, Hupalo clocked five years at UBS as a member of the student-loan securitization team. His resume also includes stints at Smith Barney and Manufacturers Hanover.