Chase bank hiring 200 in Milwaukee - Kansas City Business Journal:

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New employees are working at theChase Tower, 111 E. Wisconsin Ave., and are focused mainly on negotiatinf new payment arrangements with homeowners delinquentg ontheir payments, said spokeswomanj Christine Holevas. Chase is one of the nation’ds largest mortgage servicers with a portfolioof $1.5 The bank added billions in mortgagw business with the September 2008 acquisition of Washingtohn Mutual. The new hires include loan negotiators, underwriters and supervisors, Holevas Many already have started training. Chase has abouy 1,400 employees in greater Milwaukee, and nearly 950 in Holevas said. Chase, which is part of , New York runs 41 branches in themetropolitanh area.
In December 2008, Chase cited declining activitgyin home-equity lending when it announcecd job eliminations by early February in its downtownm Milwaukee home equity servicing center. Some employees who were laid off earlie this year are likely amon g those being hired for the mortgageservicing functions, Holevasx said. “We had terrific people and we want to get the best ofthoss back,” she said. Chas bank officials like the quality of employeed in Milwaukee and theirwork ethic, Holevas said. She could not predict the longevit y of thenew jobs. “As the businesa changes so do our employment Holevas said. “We staff according to needs.
” As the numbere of foreclosures continues torise nationally, Chase is far from the only bank to boosft its staff for handling troubled mortgages. Some banks, includingh M&I Marshall & Ilsley in have instituted foreclosure moratoriums as they attempt to modifhy mortgages toreduce payments. M&I’s foreclosure moratorium is schedulesd to expire onJune 30. In the past six M&I has increased by 50 perceny its staff dedicated to assisting the increasing number of homeowners facingfinancialp stress, said Dick president of the bank’s Wisconsin community bank He declined to disclosr the number of jobs that M& I has added.
M&I works with homeowners before they reach delinquencyh to avoid foreclosure and also seeks solutions for homeowner s alreadyin foreclosure, Becker said. Minneapolis-basec , which has the second-largestg deposit market share in metropolitan Milwauked and services more than 1 millionjmortgages nationally, announced in March that it is constructing a building in Owensboro, Ky., for its mortgage services unit. The bank alreadyt employs 850 people in Owensboro and the new buildinbg will accommodate up to 300new employees.
At the community bank level, the loan modificatio strategies are implemented on a smaller For example, , Wauwatosa, increased its collections staff from two to threse plus a half-time employee to tacklw the increased workload, said president and CEO Doug Collections employees review the home-owner’s financial situation in an effort to avoid foreclosure, Gordo said. The employees discussz what the homeowner can afforrd for payments and whether the mortgag eis salvageable, he said.
The bank has successfullg modified many mortgages and even stopped some foreclosures while they werein process, he “We’d much rather modify them — work with them — than foreclose,” Gordon “Nobody wins in that. We don’t want to own the real estates andthey don’t want to lose the real