BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research has announced that Alan Todd will join the group in August as head of US commercial mortgage backed securities research. In this role, Todd will be responsible for generating high-level, relative value and trade specific research recommendations to external and internal clients in both cash and synthetics, and will report to Chris Flanagan, head of US mortgages and structured finance research. Todd joins from JP Morgan, where he has been head of US CMBS research since 2005.