After the U.S. government took control of Freddie Mac, David Moffett was named CEO of the mortgage giant. Six months later, Moffett is telling the board he will not stay on after March 13. The board is working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency to appoint a successor.

Moffett said he wants to return to a role in the financial services sector. Before Freddie Mac, he was a senior adviser at Carlyle Group and spent more than a decade with U.S. Bancorp as chief financial officer. He stepped down as CFO and vice chairman of U.S. Bancorp in 2007.

IPC Holdings Ltd., a reinsurer, will acquire Max Capital Group Ltd. for about $912 million in stock. Max Capital chairman and CEO W. Marston Becker will lead the combined company, which will retain the Max Capital name and be 58% owned by IPC. James Bryce, president and chief executive of IPC, will retire on June 30. He will continue in a nonexecutive role as chairman of Max IPC Re (IPC and Max's renamed reinsurance platform), and will help with client relations and marketing.

Peter Minton, Max's chief operating officer, and Joe Roberts, Max's chief financial officer, will hold their respective titles at Max Capital Group. IPC Holdings' CFO John Weale will become executive vice president and treasurer of Max Capital Group.

HSBC plc, looking to raise $17.7 billion through a share issue after big losses in the U.S. subprime mortgage market, said that except for credit cards, it will write no further consumer finance business through the HFC and Beneficial brands in the U.S. and close the majority of the network. About 6,100 jobs will be lost.

The restructuring will not affect HSBC Bank in the U.S.

On April 1, Gérard Errera will join Blackstone Group LP as a senior adviser in Paris and will sit on the international advisory board.

Errera spent the last two years as Secretary General of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was the French Ambassador to the U.K. for five years before that. He was also French Ambassador to NATO and Director General for Political Affairs. Earlier, Errera was director for international affairs at the French Atomic Energy Commission and Governor for France at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Amherst Holdings LLC, an adviser to businesses focused on the mortgage sector, hired Joseph Walsh as president and Ramon de Castro as chief risk officer to oversee expansion in its core residential mortgage-backed securities business and in the new securitized product offerings. Walsh and de Castro will work from New York and McLean, Va., respectively.

Walsh, who was a managing director in the private equity business at Fortress Investment Group, will be president of Amherst Holdings and its subsidiaries, including Amherst Securities Group LP. Before Fortress, Walsh spent nine years at RBS Greenwich Capital, where he was a managing director and head of mortgage- and asset-backed origination, finance and trading. De Castro spent the past 18 years at Fannie Mae, where he was senior vice president of capital markets.

In February, Amherst Securities made four hires: senior managing director Daniel Farrell and managing director Mark Castiglione, structured products; managing director Andrew Beal, agency CMO trading; and senior vice president Kenneth Dinovo, agency CMO structuring and trading.

Private investment firm Starwood Capital Group Global LLC named ex-Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. banker John McCarthy global head of asset management. He will be based in Greenwich, Conn., and report directly to chairman and CEO
Barry Sternlicht.

McCarthy was most recently global co-head of asset management for Lehman Brothers Real Estate Private Equity. Prior to that, McCarthy was a partner at O'Connor Capital Partners, where he was co-head of the European business and head of European asset management. He also spent 17 years at GE Capital Corp.

Jeffrey Dishner, currently head of asset management, will return to helping lead the acquisitions team for Starwood Capital.

Australia's Macquarie Group Ltd. enlarged its investment banking platform in the U.S. Mark Davis joins as a managing director in Los Angeles. He spent a decade at Citigroup Inc., responsible for activities in West Coast financial sponsors and diversified middle market. He was also responsible for Citi's advisory initiatives in the clean tech space. Stephen Conner joined Macquarie Capital in New York as a managing director. He joins the global resources group after 10 years at Morgan Stanley, where he was a senior member of the mergers and acquisitions team, focusing on energy.

Copal Partners hired Rikard af Ekenstam as managing director for Europe. Ekenstam was most recently head of new markets client coverage at ABN Amro NV. Before that, he was a director in its technology, media and telecom investment banking team.

Private equity real estate firm Benson Elliot Capital Management tapped Philipp Braschel as a principal to lead its investment strategies in Germany. Braschel was previously an executive director in Goldman, Sachs & Co.'s real estate principal investment area.

K&L Gates LLP opened an office in Singapore, its fifth Asian office. Partner Kevin Murphy will lead the Singapore corporate and restructuring team. He joins from DLA Piper. Corporate partners James Chen, Sin Khai Tan and Choo Lye Tan will also work in the office.

On March 1, K&L Gates completed its combination with Chicago's Bell, Boyd & Lloyd LLP.