NEW YORK — GMAC Financial Services announced it has named a new chief operating officer. Taking that position is Alvaro de Molina, effective immediately.

In this newly created role, officials said de Molina will be responsible for GMAC's real estate finance and commercial finance businesses, and for all of GMAC's global finance and risk functions. He will report to GMAC chief executive officer Eric Feldstein.

"Al brings strong leadership and expertise in the financial services arena," said Feldstein. "His extensive experience will be a valuable asset to the company as we focus on continued profitable growth of our auto finance, insurance and commercial finance businesses, while striving to turn around our real estate finance operations in this challenging market environment."

De Molina will also join the GMAC Executive Committee and will become a member of the boards of GMAC ResCap, GMAC Commercial Finance and GMAC Bank (subject to normal corporate and regulatory approvals).

De Molina will have several executives reporting to him, including Jim Jones, GMAC executive vice president and president of Residential Capital; Bill Hall, president of GMAC Commercial Finance; and Sanjiv Khattri, GMAC executive vice president and chief financial officer of GMAC and ResCap.

Officials said there will be no change in the reporting relationship of the global automotive finance and insurance business units, which will continue to be led by GMAC president Bill Muir who will continue to report directly to Feldstein.

Other members of the GMAC leadership team who continue to report directly to Feldstein include: William Solomon, general counsel; Cherri Musser, chief information technology officer; Glenn Gienko, chief human resource officer; and Toni Simonetti, chief communications officer.

"In his role as chief operating officer, Al will add significant strength to the existing GMAC leadership team," said Feldstein. "He will be instrumental in driving GMAC's operating strategies and key growth initiatives and will help to ensure their successful execution."

De Molina, 50, joined Cerberus Capital Management in June of this year following a 17-year career at Bank of America, most recently serving as its chief financial officer. During his tenure at BofA, executives said de Molina also served as chief executive officer of Banc of America Securities, president of global capital markets and investment banking and corporate treasurer.

Previously, he also served in key roles at J.P. Morgan and PriceWaterhouse.