The expansion-minded MetLife Home Loans has hired two former executives from Sovereign Bank to manage its new warehouse lending division, National Mortgage News has learned.
Charlie Clark, who left Sovereign last year, has been named vice president and director of warehouse lending with Paul Chmielinski joining him as the Texas lender's number two official in charge of warehouse.
Both men will work out of MetLife's offices in Boston. MetLife Home Loans is based in Irving, Texas. Chmielinski, who also carries a vice president title, left the Rosemont, Pa.-based Sovereign in January.
The two men began working for MLHL last week. In a brief interview Clark said he is "really excited" about joining the company but could not provide any details about its plans in warehousing. "Stay tuned. There's more to come," he said.
Reporting to Clark is Dee Linkletter, an operations manager in Texas who has been laying the groundwork for the business for about a year.
Besides entering the warehouse arena, MetLife also expanded into correspondent lending this year.
In mid-2008 MetLife, an insurance company, bought the origination and servicing divisions of First Horizon National Corp. of Memphis. The sale was accomplished through an asset purchase that included 230 retail and wholesale offices. Today, MLHL ranks 12th nationwide among all residential lenders, according to the Quarterly Data Report.
