Career moves

Steve Abreu is the new president of GMAC's mortgage operations, working out of the company's Fort Washington, Pa., office. His most recent position was president and chief executive of GreenPoint Mortgage Funding of California. (GreenPoint, a subsidiary of a bank, closed two years ago.) Mr. Abreu is a 20-year veteran of the mortgage banking industry. He will report to Thomas Marano, chairman and CEO of GMAC's mortgage operations. Mr. Marano recently assumed additional responsibilities as GMAC's chief capital markets officer, coordinating the firm's capital commitments, risk analytics and broker/dealers. The hiring of Mr. Abreu will provide ongoing, strategic focus for the firm's mortgage operations, GMAC said. Mr. Abreu will be representing the company at the upcoming Mortgage Bankers Association convention in San Diego.

Bank of America chief executive Kenneth Lewis — the man responsible for the bank buying both Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch — is stepping down at yearend. Late Wednesday BoA said its board is evaluating successors, with expectations of having the new CEO named by the time Mr. Lewis departs. Thanks to the Countrywide purchase, which closed last summer, BoA is the nation's largest servicer of home mortgages and second largest originator. His departure ends what has been a stormy 12 months for the handpicked successor to Hugh McColl Jr. In regard to the Merrill deal, Mr. Lewis tussled with regulators over the purchase (the bank almost backed out), and drew ire from shareholders and others over disclosure decisions over bonuses and losses at the investment bank late last year. (Merrill was a large player in the subprime ABS, CDO and warehouse lending market.) Mr. Lewis, 62, in his most recent pubic appearance, gave no indication that he might step down, instead using a Sept. 14 speech in Japan to sound a positive tone about the company and the global economy.

Joseph P. Campanelli has been hired as president and chief executive at Flagstar Bancorp Inc., Troy, Mich. Mr. Campanelli will replace Mark T. Hammond, who had served as Flagstar's president since 1995 and CEO since 2002. He is the former president and chief of Sovereign Bank and its parent Sovereign Bancorp Inc., Philadelphia. Mr. Campanelli said, "Flagstar has an excellent core franchise, a dedicated and skilled workforce and a strong market position originating and servicing residential mortgages. We have a great future ahead of us." For the second quarter, Flagstar was the nation's 11th largest originator with volume of $9.3 billion, according to the Quarterly Data Report. The QDR lists Flagstar as the nation's 18th largest servicer as of June 30, 2009, with a portfolio of $61.5 billion.

Former mortgage banker Walter C. Klein, who managed such lenders as First Nationwide Mortgage and Sears Mortgage during his long career, died this past Monday after a battle with renal carcinoma. His age was not immediately available. In 2002 Citigroup purchased Frederick, Md.-based First Nationwide and its bank parent. Mr. Klein stayed for a few months in a transition mode and then moved on. During his career he also worked as an executive consultant at Cerberus Operations and Advisory Co. and Aztec American Bank. His wife, Patricia, a daughter and two grandchildren survive him.

CitiMortgage, in yet another reorganization move, has terminated its residential production chief, Brad Bunts, a 13-year veteran of the company. Also let go was Jeffrey Walker, head of national sales. A memo provided to National Mortgage News confirmed the dismissals which were described by CitiMortgage CEO Sanjiv Das as a way for the lender to simplify its "reporting structure." In the memo both men were described as valuable members of the CitiMortgage team. Mr. Brunts oversaw CitiMortgage's entire origination business. In their place, the bank-owned mortgage company named Ed Abufaris to lead its correspondent channel and Fred Bolstad to manage the consumer mortgage channel. Both will report directly to Mr. Das. According to the Quarterly Data Report, CitiMortgage ranked fourth nationwide in residential fundings in the second quarter with $31 billion, a 2% decline from the same period last year. It also is the nation's fourth largest servicer of home mortgages.

The correspondent and warehouse lending division of Ally Bank, a unit of GMAC Financial Services, has created a correspondent community bank team that will purchase closed residential mortgage loans from banks, thrifts and credit unions. The new unit also will offer a table funding service — which means loan brokers should benefit. An executive with GMAC said the new unit will focus on community financial institutions that outsource some or all of their mortgage origination process. It will customize services to supplement the client's in-house capabilities. The Fort Washington, Pa., based company said it saw an opportunity in this line of business because market conditions have reduced funding alternatives for smaller institutions. Doug Miller is joining GMAC as the director of correspondent community banking. He held a similar position at Taylor Bean Whitaker, which filed for bankruptcy protection in August.

American Home Bank will now purchase seasoned, high-quality, residential mortgage loans from financial institutions and other portfolio holders. The company has created a team based in Fort Lauderdale, headed up by Maylin Casanueva. Most recently she had a similar role at Redwood Financial Services; also she has been the director of transaction management and due diligence services for CoreStates Securities and Meridian Capital Markets. Other members of the team have experience in banking, mortgage banking and capital markets. James Deitch, managing director of American Home Bank, said the new business helps sellers "augment their capital base and increase liquidity, while at the same time provide them with efficient trade execution." American Home Bank is the mortgage division of First National Bank of Chester County, West Chester, Pa.

Freddie Mac has named veteran banker Ross J. Kari as its permanent chief financial officer, making him the latest member to join the GSE's new senior executive leadership team under recently appointed CEO Charles E. Haldeman. His appointment is effective October 12. Mr. Kari comes to the GSE from Fifth Third Bancorp, Cincinnati, the nation's 16th largest residential funder of home loans, according to the Quarterly Data Report. During his career he also has held management positions at the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and Wells Fargo & Co. Last month Freddie named mortgage industry veteran Bruce Witherell its chief operating officer. When he was appointed in July, Mr. Haldeman expressed his eagerness to build an experienced management team at Freddie.

The mortgage insurance division of Genworth Financial has created three new senior management positions, filling the posts with current executives. Jacqui Pearce was named senior vice president and chief operations officer with Rohit Gupta being named senior vice president and chief commercial officer. Jim Bennison was named senior vice president of strategy and capital markets. Mr. Bennison will work on issues dealing with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Mountain Funding LLC has appointed Arthur Nevid to be its chief investment officer and to spearhead the national real estate investment company's plans to acquire $1 billion of distressed real estate debt portfolios over the next two to three years. He also will serve as managing director of the Charlotte, N.C., company's special servicing affiliate, which currently manages $1 billion in mortgage debt on 90 commercial properties. Since 1997, Mr. Nevid has served as Mountain's managing director of lending and investment. Prior to joining Mountain Funding, Mr. Nevid was the U.S. executive managing director of a French-owned development company based in New York City, and a real estate investment banker and asset manager at Merrill Lynch Hubbard.

Generation Mortgage Co., Atlanta has named Scott Peters president and chief executive, replacing Joe Morris. Mr. Morris, who served as president and CEO since the company's inception in 2006, will take on the role of executive director, industry relations, where he will represent Generation Mortgage as an industry advocate to play a stronger role with organizations such as the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, lend support to wholesale relationships and will also be active legislatively. Mr. Peters joins Generation Mortgage from Nortel Networks Corp., where he led the Global Business Services division. He also held senior leadership positions within General Electric Capital Corp., MassMutual, BellSouth Corp., The Profit Recovery Group International and CompuCredit Corp.

Finn Casperson, former chief executive of Beneficial Finance — once one of the largest players in consumer home equity-based lending — has been found dead in what authorities say is an apparent suicide. Mr. Casperson served as CEO from 1976 to 1998, during a time when the firm specialized in low loan-to-value ratio second liens backed by homes. When he became CEO of the firm he succeeded his father. Beneficial was sold to Household International in 1998 for about $9 billion. HSBC Holdings eventually bought Household for $14 billion. The British bank later booked huge losses on Household's subprime business.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has named H. Ronald Weissman chairman of the Federal Home Loan Banks' Office of Finance. Mr. Weissman has been a senior partner in Ernst & Young's Financial Services Office since 2002 and also worked at Arthur Andersen. Ed DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said Mr. Weissman's accounting background "will be critical to overseeing the important role of the Office of Finance in preparing the quarterly and annual combined financial report of the FHLBanks." The Office of Finance issues the debt of the 12 Home Loan banks and publishes a combined financial report for the system. Mr. Weissman succeeds Charles Bowsher, who resigned in March 2009 after refusing to approve the system's first-quarter combined reports. He ordered an independent study to explore options for making the system's accounting more transparent. That report came out earlier this month and called for greater centralization in the system's reporting, a move the Home Loan Banks are resisting.

John MacFarland has joined the independent real estate firm of Resource Title as senior vice president, National Commercial Division, to develop and grow certain lines of business at the company. Mr. MacFarland will spearhead the division's growth into the commercial real estate owned and default market segments, and take part in developing and servicing more traditional commercial and investment transactions as well. The company, based in Independence, Ohio, has been servicing the commercial market nationwide for twenty-five years, recently opening a second office in Chicago to serve its commercial customers. Resource Title also offers nontraditional services in the relocation, default and REO fields. Mr. MacFarland's arrival will enhance an already considerable national commercial presence, said Andrew Rennell, executive vice president.

Government-sponsored enterprise regulator James Lockhart is joining Wilbur Ross' firm, which specializes in managing funds that invest in distressed companies such as American Home Mortgage Services and BankUnited. Mr. Ross cited Mr. Lockhart's "unique insights into the U.S. mortgage markets" in the hire, saying this would help the company expand investment opportunities for its institutional and individual clients. Federal Housing Finance Agency director Lockhart — who recently stated his decision to step down — will become the vice chairman of WL Ross & Co. LLC in September. Mr. Lockhart will officially step down as the regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks on Friday (Aug. 21) and Edward DeMarco will assume the duties of acting FHFA director on Monday.

Former Ginnie Mae president Joseph Murin and former FHA commissioner Brian Montgomery are launching a Washington consulting firm to provide advisory services for mortgage company executives. Mr. Murin said the firm aims to help clients operate strategically in a business environment where markets and the regulatory landscape are shifting. The Collingwood Group already has an office on Pennsylvania Ave. and it has merged with Capital Financial Solutions, which was founded by two former Fannie Mae executives. Mr. Montgomery said the merger will give Collingwood clients access to expertise in fraud prevention, risk management analytics, mortgage fulfillment services, REO and loan modification management. The former Ginnie Mae and Federal Housing Administration officials recently left their government posts and they cannot directly contact those agencies on behalf of clients for one year.

GMAC-ResCap has entered into an arrangement with Mountain Funding LLC to provide asset servicing and consulting advice for some of the REO assets in GMAC-ResCap's Business Capital Group portfolio in a deal that will put a former ResCap-BCG executive at the head of a Mountain unit. The arrangement, which was completed through Mountain's asset management affiliate, the Charlotte, N.C.-based Mountain Special Servicing LLC, has been in process for several months. "There were no layoffs associated with this transaction. A small group of employees left ResCap to immediately join Mountain Funding as per agreement between both firms," said a spokesperson for GMAC-ResCap. Mountain Funding has absorbed 14 members of senior management from the REO asset management group. Joining Mountain Special Servicing as managing director will be GMAC-ResCap's former head of ResCap-BCG REO management, Joel Kaul, who will head up the company's residential asset management group. Combined with its existing portfolio, Mountain Special Servicing now has 90 assets under management, totaling $1 billion in unpaid principal balance. The assets are diversified over 20 states and include residential land development, residential lot development/sale, housing construction/sale, commercial land development, subperforming retail centers, fractured condos, apartments, and resort development. ResCap, the fifth largest mortgage servicer, said it continues to provide mortgage servicing and subservicing for a portfolio of approximately 2.6 million mortgage loans.

Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D- Conn., has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and he will have an operation during August when the Senate is not in session. Sen. Dodd said the cancer was discovered in an early state and his "prognosis is excellent." After the Senate adjourns, "I am going to have surgery. After a brief recuperation at home, I'll be back at work," Sen. Dodd said. The Connecticut senator is running for re-election next year. Sen. Dodd also is a key player in the Obama Administration's efforts to restructure regulation of the financial system and reform health care.

The Real Estate Roundtable has named Daniel M. Neidich, co-CEO of New York-based Dune Capital Management LP, as its new chairman. He succeeds Hilton Hotels president and CEO Christopher J. Nassetta. Mr. Neidich said the most significant issue facing him as he takes over the leadership of the group is the ongoing liquidity and refinancing crisis that is forcing real estate owners into bankruptcy and pushing up delinquency rates on commercial mortgages. The remaining executive board members are: secretary, Robert S. Taubman, chairman, president and CEO of Taubman Centers Inc.; and treasurer, Jeffrey Schwartz, chairman of Global Logistic Properties. The Roundtable's current policy agenda includes a "Five Point Plan" for restoring liquidity to the credit market. While some of those steps have already been enacted, the group said additional policy action is needed to facilitate loan workouts and restructurings through temporary changes in the tax rules governing real estate mortgage investment conduits. Also needed is an overhaul of policies governing foreign investment in U.S. real estate. "The debt markets, including the CMBS market, are still generally dysfunctional, transaction volume remains at virtually zero, and commercial property values remain under downward pressure," said Mr. Neidich.

Tom Neary has resigned as executive vice president and senior managing director of Residential Capital Corp., effective at the end of July. Mr. Neary joined the nation's seventh-largest residential originator a year ago and was brought in by ResCap chairman and CEO Tom Marano. "He resigned for personal reasons," a company spokeswoman confirmed to this newspaper. He is responsible for managing the business risk for ResCap's mortgage servicing rights and oversees its pipeline hedging activities. ResCap is an affiliate of GMAC Financial Services.