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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.