Chase bank hiring 200 in Milwaukee - Portland Business Journal:

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New employees are working at theChase Tower, 111 E. Wisconsijn Ave., and are focused mainly on negotiating new payment arrangements with homeowners delinquenrt ontheir payments, said spokeswoman Christine Holevas. Chase is one of the nation’ws largest mortgage servicers with a portfolioof $1.5 trillion. The bank addex billions in mortgage business with the Septemberf 2008 acquisition ofWashingtoh Mutual. The new hires include loan specialists, negotiators, underwriters and Holevas said. Many already have startee training. Chase has about 1,400 employees in greatert Milwaukee, and nearly 950 in Milwaukee, Holevas said.
which is part of , New York City, runs 41 branchew in the metropolitan area. In Decembe 2008, Chase cited declining activityin home-equity lendinfg when it announced job eliminations by early Februaryh in its downtown Milwaukee home equith servicing center. Some employees who were laid off earlier this year are likelyg among those being hired for the mortgagerservicing functions, Holevas said. “We had terrifidc people and we want to get the best of those she said. Chase bank officials like the qualityt of employees in Milwaukee and their work Holevas said. She could not predict the longevity of thenew “As the business changes so do our employment Holevas said.
“We staff according to customers’ As the number of foreclosures continues to rise Chase is far from the only bank to boost its staff for handlingtroubled mortgages. Some including M&I Marshall Ilsley in Milwaukee, have instituted foreclosure moratoriumes as they attempt to modify mortgage toreduce payments. M&I’sx foreclosure moratorium is scheduled to expire onJune 30. In the past six M&I has increased by 50 percent its staffd dedicated to assisting the increasinvg number of homeowners facingfinanciap stress, said Dick Becker, presidenf of the bank’s Wisconsin communityg bank unit. He decliner to disclose the number of jobsthat M& I has added.
M&I works with homeowners befor e they reach delinquency to avoid foreclosur e and also seeks solutions for homeowners alreadyin foreclosure, Becketr said. Minneapolis-based , which has the second-largest depositr market share in metropolitahn Milwaukee and services more than 1 milliobnmortgages nationally, announced in March that it is constructingy a building in Owensboro, Ky., for its mortgagw services unit. The bank alreadyg employs 850 people in Owensboro and the new building will accommodatse up to 300new employees.
At the community bank the loan modification strategiesx are implemented on a smaller For example, , Wauwatosa, increased its collectionds staff from two to three plus a half-tim employee to tackle the increased workload, said presidentr and CEO Doug Gordon. Collections employees reviee the home-owner’s financial situation in an efforr toavoid foreclosure, Gordon The employees discuss what the homeowner can afford for payments and whether the mortgage is he said. The bank has successfully modifier many mortgages and even stopped some foreclosures while they werein process, he said.
“We’d much ratherr modify them — work with them — than foreclose,” Gordoh said. “Nobody wins in that. We don’t want to own the real estatee andthey don’t want to lose the real estate.”