Daniel Jacobs, the former chief executive of 1st Metropolitan Mortgage, is keeping his hands in the branching game, albeit from an employee-employer matchmaker role.
He has launched Pro Mortgage Bankers Solutions, whose role is to match up branch managers with as the company’s website put it, “The right home for the remainder of their careers in the mortgage industry.”
This new business comes from the frustrations he felt as an executive of one of the largest branching firms and not getting the candidates for employees in a manner that he would have liked. He had a recruiting team in place that got its share of leads for branch managers, but there was very little pull-through. In fact, Jacobs said, 90% of the leads did not fit into his company’s box.
Yet, he realized, there are plenty of companies out there that these branch managers would have been fine candidates for.
Hence, PMBS was born. Its website, PMBS.net, explains the BranchMatch process, including an online application those seeking a new position can fill out, which he called the “compatibility questionnaire.”
On the other side of the equation, PMBS currently represents about six lenders, of which Jacobs notes, each having a slightly different profile of what they are looking for. Its job, he said, is to determine the right fit between potential employee and employer.
There is “a good enough level of diversity” among his clients, so instead of finding 10% a new home, PMBS should find 70%.
As part of his team, there is a group of recruiting professionals he has worked with for as long as 10 years. Each member has experience as an originator and a branch manager and has been involved in corporate management of a branching company.
Originators get started with PMBS through a program called MemberAccess. A membership is not required for an initial assessment. There is an informal discussion to see if the company has a lender that might be a good cultural fit, Jacobs said.
At that point, if the job seeker decides to continue on, he or she needs to join MemberAccess. Membership lasts for six months and is “moderately priced,” the website said.
He said among the services provided for MemberAccess members are a criminal background check, credit check, providing detailed business planning advice and assembling the application and lender-required documentation.
This allows the lender to fast track the due diligence on the candidate.
PMBS is structured to meet the needs of the lender rather than for the ease of the recruiter, Jacobs said.
He can’t see the company ever working for more than 10 to 12 lenders. This will allow it to have some overlap between lenders but being able to emphasize their differences as well in order to find the best counterpart.
The goal is to create “good matches that stick for the long term.”
Branching companies do pay a fee to PMBS to handle the outsourcing of their job recruiting function, the website said.
Jacobs said there is a need for a service like PMBS now more than in the past.
With the Federal Reserve Board loan officer compensation rule scheduled to come into effect on April 1, the mortgage industry could see more voluntary turnover in jobs during 2011 than it has in recent years, he explained.
