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Terry Lindsey, a division manager at Chase since 2005, has been promoted to national sales manager of correspondent sales. Chase also reported that it recently hired Tim Bernard to serve as the producing sales manager for its Pacific Northwest region. In addition, the company announced the promotion of the following account executives to regional sales managers for their territories: Drew Parrish, Carolinas and Georgia; Rob Porges, Florida; Nicole Williams, Texas; Dan Sheehy, Mid-Atlantic; and Holly Rittenhouse, California.

Countrywide Financial Corp., which is slated for sale to Bank of America, has lost its chief information officer, Richard K. Jones -- a 12-year veteran of the lender -- to technology giant Fiserv Inc. On Friday Fiserv said it had hired Mr. Jones to be its CIO and executive vice president. At Countrywide, Mr. Jones also held the title of managing director. A publicly traded company, Fiserv sells information and technology systems to mortgage lenders, servicers, and other types of financial institutions. The companies can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com and http://www.fiserv.com.

Countrywide Financial Corp. chairman, chief executive, and founder Angelo Mozilo is entitled to a severance package of about $112 million if he leaves the company, according to a report put out by Equilar, an executive compensation company. Last week Bank of America agreed to buy the nation's largest lender and servicer for $4 billion. To date, no mention has been made about Mr. Mozilo's role with a Countrywide-owned BoA. His Countrywide employment contract stipulates that his reign as CEO will end in 2009, but he would remain as a nonexecutive chairman. If BoA decides not to keep him on as CEO, or he chooses to retire, his severance package would kick in. Basing its information on a year-old proxy statement, Equilar says Mr. Mozilo is entitled to a severance package of $88 million plus retirement benefits of $24 million. At deadline time, Countrywide could not be reached for comment. Over the past few yeas Mr. Mozilo has sold well over $300 million worth of Countrywide stock, converting options into cash. His stock sales are the subject of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. In past interviews he has maintained that all his stock sales were disclosed and done according to SEC rules.

David W. Lindstrom, president and chief executive officer of Franklin Bank, has been elected to a two-year term as chairman of the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York. In addition, Michael M. Horn has been elected to serve the remaining term, through Dec. 31, of the current vice chair. Mr. Lindstrom has been serving as vice chair since 2005. Mr. Horn has been a partner since 1990 in the Newark, N.J., office of the McCarter & English LLP law firm, the FHLBank said. The New York FHLBank provides services to financial institutions in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It can be found on the Web at http://www.fhlbny.com.

Gregory S. Tornquist, president of Cenlar FSB, has been named to the additional position of chief executive officer of the savings bank, which specializes in subservicing mortgages and home equity lines of credit. Mr. Tornquist, who is also president of Cenlar Capital Corp., joined Cenlar in 1987. He became chief financial officer in 1998, executive vice president in 2004, and president in 2006, the company said.

James Cayne, the chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns -- once a major player in the subprime mortgage market -- is expected to relinquish his chief executive title. As of MortgageWire's deadline, a spokesman for Bear had not returned a telephone call about the matter. A few weeks ago, Bear laid off all remaining account executives who once worked in the Irvine, Calif., office of Encore Credit Corp., a subprime wholesaler that it had merged into its mortgage group. Among those let go was Shabi Asghar, who served as president of ECC. Mr. Cayne, according to combined news reports, is expected to remain as chairman. In years past Bear has been a top-ranked securitizer of subprime loans and, like many investment banking firms, has taken large writedowns on its holdings. This past summer, two subprime-related hedge funds managed by Bear filed for bankruptcy protection. Bear Stearns can be found online at http://www.bearstearns.com.

Doug Lebda, president and chief operating officer of IAC, has been named chairman and chief executive officer of the company's financial services and real estate businesses, including LendingTree, HomeLoanCenter, GetSmart, RealEstate.com, Domania, and iNest. C.D. Davies, CEO of LendingTree, and Bret Violette, president of RealEstate.com, will report to Mr. Lebda, who joined IAC in 2003 after the company acquired LendingTree. IAC announced in November that it plans to separate itself into five publicly traded entities (including LendingTree). The company said the latest announcement was the first in a series that will deal with the structure for each of the separate entities. IAC, Lending Tree, and RealEstate.com can be found online at http://www.iac.com, http://www.lendingtree.com, and http://www.realestate.com.

Tom Fiddler and John Manglardi have been named executive vice presidents of sales growth and development at Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif.The company said they will work together on strategic initiatives in Countrywide’s retail division, including enhancing technology and pricing strategies and spearheading growth in the government loan program segment. Mr. Manglardi served most recently as president of retail east sales for American Home Mortgage, where he shared sales and operations management responsibilities with Mr. Fiddler. He previously served as founder and president of First Home Mortgage, which he co-owned with Mr. Fiddler. Mr. Fiddler was most recently executive vice president for American Home Mortgage. In addition to co-owning First Home Mortgage with Mr. Manglardi, he also previously owned his own brokerage firm, Legacy Financial Inc. Countrywide can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.

Michael Commaroto, who oversees the mortgage group at Deutsche Bank (including its whole-loan trading desk), is leaving the firm effective Jan. 1, according to industry sources.At deadline time, Mr. Commaroto, who is listed in Securities and Exchange Commission documents as president of Deutsche Mortgage Securities, had not returned a telephone message. A spokeswoman for DB also could not be reached. One source, requesting that his name not be used, said significant changes are coming to Deutsche Bank's mortgage trading operation. Last year, DB bought MortgageIT, a fast-growing mortgage banking firm that funded nonprime and prime loans through different production channels. Deutsche Bank can be found online at http://www.deutsche-bank.com.

The ailing NovaStar Financial, one of the last of the remaining subprime shops, says its co-founder, chief executive, and chairman Scott Hartman will resign effective Jan. 3.Also departing is Greg Metz, senior vice president and chief financial officer. Lance Anderson, another co-founder who serves as president and chief operating officer, will assume the CEO and chairman duties. Vice president Rodney Schwatken will assume the CFO duties. Messrs. Hartman and Anderson founded the publicly traded real estate investment trust in 1996. NovaStar recently sold its $15 billion servicing portfolio (estimated) to an affiliate of Morgan Stanley & Co. for $175 million in cash. NovaStar is no longer funding subprime loans and, like many nonconforming funders, has laid off most of its production staff. It can be found online at http://www.novastarmortgage.com.