Bear taps mortgage exec to save fund

Bear Stearns Cos. Inc. has selected Thomas Marano, head of its mortgage unit, to help save one of its troubled hedge funds, published reports said. After the firm agreed to provide financing to its floundering High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund, Mr. Marano was assigned to help manage the rescue, sources told Bloomberg. Ralph R. Cioffi, portfolio manager of both this fund and the High-Grade Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, will maintain his role, Reuters reported. Mr. Marano has been with the firm since the 1980s and has been a senior managing director since 1998, Bloomberg said. Bear Stearns will provide the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund with $1.6 billion in financing to help save it, half of the $3.2 billion the firm originally offered last Friday to keep creditors from seizing the fund’s assets. The firm has decided not to bail out its High-Grade Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, which is also struggling in the face of debt.