And the exodus of former Bear Stearns & Cos. MBS personnel continues — but, in a surprising move, more than a few have landed at RBS Greenwich Capital in recent weeks. Despite the industry downturn, the Connecticut-based fixed-income firm said Wednesday that it had added 16 professionals to its mortgage-backed securities team; fifteen of the hires hail from Bear Stearns alone, including Scott Eichel, who has been tapped to co-head asset-backed and mortgage trading at the firm. Eichel joins RBS veteran David Cannon to head up trading efforts at the firm; his departure from JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) was first reported by Bloomberg in late June. Eichel is joined by six other traders from Bear Stearns, including his two senior traders, Adam Siegel and Paul Van Lingen, RBS said in a press statement. Also joining RBS are ABX trader David Dietche, CDO trader Matt Katke, CDS trader Keith Lind and ARMS trader Joe Steffa. RBS said it has also hired John Suh from Bank of America Securities to trade mortgage derivatives, as well; we can only hope he doesn’t feel out of place among the former Bear family. “I’m looking forward to having Scott as a partner to further strengthen the mortgage platform as we aspire to become our customers’ top counterparty across the mortgage product line,” said Cannon. “These additions are a perfect complement to the existing team that was already considered one of the strongest on the Street.” Beyond trading, RBS also bolstered its institutional MBS sales team with the addition of eight salespeople — all of whom were from Bear Stearns. The additions to the sales team include Corey DeForrest, Andrew Javorksy, Dan Hoffman, Andrew Kail, Jesse Maffei, Lou Rosenfeld, and Darryl Smith in Connecticut, and Matt Zisette who joins the Los Angeles office. “We are excited to have a group of salespeople and traders of this caliber coming on board,” said Jeffrey DiModica, managing director and dead of ABS Sales in Greenwich. He should be; RBS looks to essentially have just hired much of the guts of the Bear Stearns mortgage machine. For more information, visit http://www.rbsgc.com. Disclosure: The author held no relevant positions when this story was published; indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.