Securitisation professionals who've been out of the market for years are getting re-employed!

Securitisation is still looking like a bit of a disaster zone. It's not as bad as it was, but it remains far from beautiful. According to Dealogic, total European asset backed and mortgaged backed securities issuance this year is $93bn, up substantially from $26bn in 2009, but down dramatically from the $537bn of issuance in 2005.

The future is also looking slightly suspect, with securitisation expected to suffer disproportionately under new capital requirements.

Despite this, there is HOPE. As issuance of securitised products crawls slowly upwards, people who have not worked in the business for a few years are finding work again.

The latest in this category is James Fadel. James has just joined Jefferies as a managing director and head of European Structured Debt Capital Markets.

According to the FSA Register, Fadel last worked in February 2008, when he was a managing director and head of European ABS and MBS at Morgan Stanley.

Nor is James alone in finding gainful reemployment. Raffaella Boscolo, a former CDO structurer, has recently joined headhunter Kinsey Allen to cover the structured credit market. Boscolo also left the business in early 2008.

She says banks are assembling teams to create adhoc securitised products for hedge fund clients. Other banks are securitising loans generated internally. RBS, for example, issued 4.7bn of mortgage backed securities in September.

Jefferies says it plans to hire additional securitisation expertise 'selectively' in the New Year.

"People are doing some hiring, but it's three or four people MAX per bank," says Alex Tracey at fixed income search boutique CP Partners.

Securitisation professionals who haven't spent the past two years pruning roses are mostly now employed at hedge funds. Sadly, it may still be a while before they can all come back to banking at once.