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November 6, 2009

Wells Servicing Chief: Servicers 'Hiring Like Crazy'

Residential servicers, a sector that is grappling with a potential tidal wave of loan modifications, are beginning to hire "like crazy" according to Mary Coffin, a senior servicing executive with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Ms. Coffin, speaking at SourceMedia's Loan Modification Conference in Dallas, noted that new servicing employees working on modifications are receiving four to five weeks of training in order to deal with the volumes they are facing. An EVP in charge of loan servicing for the nation's second largest player in mortgages, she said servicers are going much deeper in collecting financial information from the borrower. "Servicers have become very holistic looking at the entire problem. We are actually underwriting the financial condition of the borrower in order to pick the right solution that is sustainable," she told conference attendees. The Wells executive noted that there is still much confusion regarding documentation under the government's Home Affordable Modification Program, including re-requesting documents and losing documents. "Because of all the attention on mods, we went from a day when borrowers called to say, 'What can I do?' to sorting through calls and educating borrowers. We are still educating them on what you have to look like before you can get a mod. Borrowers have a high anxiety and fear when signing complex documents."