Wells Fargo hires Flagstar Bank's Kristy Fercho to lead home lending

The president of Flagstar Bank's housing finance unit will soon be running Wells Fargo Home Lending, replacing Michael DeVito, who is retiring after more than 23 years at the company.

Kristy Fercho, who joined Flagstar's mortgage division in 2017, is also the vice chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association and its diversity and inclusion committee. Previously she was a senior vice president in Fannie Mae’s single-family division.

DeVito was originally named interim head of Wells Fargo Home Lending in 2017 after the bank fired consumer lending head Franklin Codel over Codel's improper handling of an employee's termination. In 2018, the bank named DeVito permanent head of the mortgage division.

Before leading Wells Fargo's mortgage division as a whole, DeVito was the head of home loan production. He also previously ran Wells Fargo's servicing operations and was known for being involved in some of home lending's early electronic business initiatives.

Fercho will join Wells Fargo in August and report to Mike Weinbach, the bank's CEO of consumer lending.