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Wells Fargo executive vice president Mark Oman -- who made the bank into the mortgage powerhouse it is today -- says he will retire from the company by the end of 2009. Mr. Oman oversees four business groups, including mortgages and card services, which will continue to report to him for the time being. Wells is the nation's second-largest residential lender and servicer, second only to Bank of America/Countrywide, according to figures compiled by the Quarterly Data Report. Over the past 15 years Wells has grown rapidly in mortgages by purchasing nonbank residential firms and merging with other depositories. Under Mr. Oman, Wells also ventured into subprime lending -- once ranking first in that niche -- but has yet to suffer the traumatic losses experienced by other firms. Mr. Oman joined Wells' predecessor bank, Norwest, in 1979 and was named mortgage chief in 1985. Wells Fargo can be found on the Web at http://www.wellsfargo.com.
August 28 -
A management shakeup at Fannie Mae has placed Peter Niculescu in charge of the single-family business and capital markets and named David Hisey the new chief financial officer. Fannie president and chief executive Daniel Mudd said the restructuring is needed to meet the company's goals of conserving capital and controlling credit losses. Mr. Niculescu, executive vice president for capital markets, will replace company veteran and chief business officer Robert Levin, who is retiring. Mr. Hisey will replace CFO Stephen Swad, and Michael Shaw will be the new credit risk officer, replacing Enrico Dallavecchia. "Rob, Steve, and Enrico have all offered to advise and provide any assistance possible to their successors and teams as we put this restructuring in place," Mr. Mudd said. Fannie can be found on the Web at http://www.fanniemae.com.
August 28 -
Frederick B. "Bart" Harvey III, a leader in promoting affordable housing, has been elected to the board of directors of Fannie Mae. Mr. Harvey, 59, retired as chairman of Enterprise Community Partners in March after 24 years with the foundation, of which he was chief executive officer from 1994 to 2007. Fannie Mae said Mr. Harvey worked with Congress to help create the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. "Bart is a perfect addition to Fannie Mae's board -- his life's work represents everything our mission is about: harnessing private enterprise to expand affordable, sustainable housing opportunities," said Daniel H. Mudd, Fannie's president and CEO. Fannie can be found online at http://www.fanniemae.com.
August 27 -
Five X Securities Inc., Oakton, Va., has been formed to provide what it terms "high-quality real estate opportunities to individual investors," and Daniel Young has been appointed as principal and chief executive officer. The independent broker-dealer said it will initially focus on the apartment sector, as well as seek out opportunities in the industrial and office sectors. "We fully intend to identify investment opportunities and craft institutional-quality deals of the type previously unavailable to individuals," Mr. Young said. "These deals will feature low fees and an alignment of interest between the sponsor and the investor. And it is our intent to distribute to high-net-worth individuals." Mr. Young, 41, had been president and CEO of NFP Securities, Austin, Texas, since 2007, and he previously spent eight years with New York Life Insurance Co. as president and CEO of NY Life Securities and Eagle Strategies, both in New York City.
August 27 -
The Mortgage Bankers Association has promoted Jay Brinkmann to be the trade group's chief economist and senior vice president for research and economics. Mr. Brinkmann joined the MBA in 2001, and the economist has been in charge of research for much of that time. He previously worked at Fannie Mae in the portfolio strategy and credit pricing areas. He replaces Douglas Duncan, who left the MBA in February to be Fannie's chief economist. Mr. Brinkmann has a Ph.D. in finance from Purdue University and a master of business administration from Tulane University.
August 26 -
Loan officer Yale Bertolucci says he is owed $5,650 by Central Pacific Mortgage of Folsom, Calif., a defunct mortgage firm controlled and managed by incoming Mortgage Bankers Association president John Courson. In a recent interview with National Mortgage News, Mr. Bertolucci said he has a state-sanctioned judgment against the company for unpaid wages, adding that he is none too happy that Mr. Courson (who closed CPM in early 2007 after it couldn't handle loan buyback requests from investors) is now in charge of the nation's large mortgage trade group. "He left thousands of employees without their last paychecks," said Mr. Bertolucci, who has yet to collect on his judgment. Mr. Courson declined to comment directly on the judgment. A spokeswoman for the MBA said, "John was trying to sell the company [CPM]. When the sale didn't happen, he was forced to close it. He was unable to make the last payroll." She said there are at least eight judgments against CPM. "I don't know the amounts," the spokeswoman said. "The judgments are against CPM, not John."
August 26 -
Frank Pallotta, a former Morgan Stanley mortgage origination executive, has become chief executive officer and owner of his own company, Steel Curtain Capital Group LLC, Mahwah, N.J. Mr. Pallotta was previously a managing director in Morgan Stanley's fixed-income division. He said his new company specializes in distressed/real estate-owned assets.
August 22 -
Lisa Schreiber has been named chief strategy officer of NetMore America Inc., a regional mortgage lender based in Walla Walla, Wash.The company said Ms. Schreiber will be responsible for defining and implementing a strategy to build NetMore into "the next-generation mortgage banker." Ms. Schreiber has more than 22 years of mortgage industry experience in retail operations and sales, wholesale operations, mortgage insurance, and secondary marketing. Most recently, she founded LSK Consultants LLC. She was previously executive vice president of American Brokers Conduit, a wholesale mortgage lender, and regional vice president at Bank of America Mortgage. NetMore can be found online at http://www.netmoreamerica.com.
August 22 -
Ted Janulis, global head of mortgage capital and a longtime executive at Lehman Brothers, is said to be retiring. A Lehman Brothers spokesman would not comment on the departure, and Mr. Janulis, 49, could not be reached for comment. But sources said that market conditions that have caused the Wall Street firm and some of its peers largely to withdraw from the global origination business have led to an amicable split between the executive and the company. He has been with the company for 23 years and started out in the mortgage business at the firm, but he was also involved in investment management from 2002 to 2006 before shifting back into the mortgage area.
August 22 -
Richard Winter, founder of The Winter Group, which ran a modest-sized trading desk that specialized in home equity loans, has left the organization, MortgageWire has learned. At deadline time, neither the company nor Mr. Winter could be reached for comment. The firm is based in New York. TWG, owned by Shinsei Bank of Japan, also operates a specialty servicer based in Colorado. That business, according to servicing brokers, is now being shopped around to potential buyers. One broker said its portfolio could total upwards of $8 billion (including subservicing contracts), but could not say for sure.
August 19