Career moves

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 38 other Republicans are pledging to file a court brief supporting any legal challenge to the recess appointment of Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

CMG Mortgage Insurance Co., San Francisco, named Pete Pannes senior vice president and general manager.

Wholesale lending is back! OK, not exactly. Citigroup announced its exit from the channel this past week and some trade journals - not knowing their stuff - seemed to think it was the biggest story since the Hindenburg disaster. Wholesale only accounted for 9% of Citi's production.

Barbara Desoer, the president of Bank of America's home loans division who was once considered a possible successor to former Chief Executive Ken Lewis, will retire at the end of February, B of A said Friday.

It appears that possible salary and bonus caps at the GSEs are not hurting the recruiting efforts of at least Fannie Mae.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union, Manhattan Beach, Calif., hired Scott Houp as director, national correspondent wholesale loan production.

Recap Real Estate Advisors, Boston, said that Leslie Bos has joined the organization as principal consultant.

Ellie Mae created a new chief information officer position and hired David Robbins to fill the new role, the mortgage technology vendor announced.

Ellie Mae, Pleasanton, Calif., said that David Robbins has joined the company as chief information officer.

Barry Habib, a mortgage origination marketing expert and former top producer, has joined Residential Finance Corp., Columbus, Ohio, as its chief market strategist.

The Williams Capital Group LP has added a new structured finance unit to serve corporate, federal, state and local government clients and hired an executive who had held several key leadership positions within Lehman Brothers' mortgage and securitization businesses to head it.

Cohen Financial, Chicago, a national real estate capital services firm, promoted Vincent Beckett to chief financial officer from vice president.

First Guaranty Mortgage Corp., McLean, Va., named Lyle Lasky to serve as AVP, national underwriting and credit compliance manager.

I watched the State of the Union speech Tuesday and came away thinking no real "mortgage" surprises tonight except for two: Obama not using the word "mortgage broker" once, and the formation of the DOJ fraud task force on securitizing loans. But what about the "The State of the Mortgage Union"?

Plaza Home Mortgage Inc., San Diego, said that Salpi Meyer has joined the company as sales manager for the correspondent lending division.

PHH Corp., which saw its CEO depart a few weeks ago, late Thursday named Charles Pizzi, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, to its board.

Mark Calvert has joined San Ramon, Calif.-based Mason-McDuffie Mortgage Corp. to continue its national expansion into the Midwest and the East.

Citigroup recently told its mortgage correspondents that going forward it will only buy "low risk" loans. What's a low risk loan, you ask? Answer: any mortgage that has an almost zero chance of going south.

Former Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd, who was named last month in a mortgage-related SEC fraud suit, has officially resigned from publicly traded investment manager Fortress Investment Group and its board, ending a leave of absence.

Allonhill, an independent third-party review firm specializing in mortgage due diligence and credit risk management, hired Bill Cushard as director of training and development.