Kevin Kendra

Managing Director at Fitch Group

Speaker

Kevin P. Kendra is a managing director in Fitch Ratings’ New York office. He currently manages the North American Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) group responsible for U.S. RMBS bond and servicer ratings and Canadian covered bond ratings. Previously he managed the U.S. Structured Credit group responsible for collateralized loan obligations (CLO) and other structured credit ratings. Prior to that post he served as Group Credit Officer for U.S. and Latin America Structured Finance. In this role he maintained and further enhanced the quality of credit analysis within the structured finance and covered bonds teams, particularly with respect to criteria used for rating analysis and raising awareness of developing trends. He held various positions within Fitch’s Structured Credit and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) groups. He managed Fitch’s structured credit team through the most recent financial crisis. Prior to that, he was responsible for CDO surveillance within the structured credit group. He was responsible for rating CMBS transactions in Fitch’s U.S. CMBS group before joining the CDO group in 2002. There, he was also responsible for developing credit risk models with respect to commercial mortgages. Kevin earned a BS in marine engineering and naval architecture from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and an MBA in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Kevin served six years as an engineering officer in the U.S. Coast Guard before joining Fitch in 1997.