Chase bank hiring 200 in Milwaukee - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

Microwave Contractors
New employees are working at theChase Tower, 111 E. Wisconsih Ave., and are focused mainly on negotiatingh new payment arrangements with homeowners delinquent on their said spokeswomanChristine Holevas. Chasr is one of the nation’s largest mortgagw servicers with a portfolioof $1.5 The bank added billionsd in mortgage business with the Septembe r 2008 acquisition of Washingtoh Mutual. The new hires include loan specialists, underwriters and supervisors, Holevas Many already have started training. Chaswe has about 1,400 employees in greater Milwaukee, and nearl y 950 in Milwaukee, Holevas Chase, which is part of , New York City, runs 41 branchez in the metropolitan area.
In December 2008, Chas e cited declining activityin home-equity lendingb when it announced job eliminations by earlyt February in its downtown Milwaukee home equituy servicing center. Some employees who were laid off earlier this year are likelhy among those being hireds for the mortgage servicing Holevas said. “We had terrifidc people and we want to get the best ofthosse back,” she said. Chase bank officials like the qualitu of employees in Milwaukee and theirwork ethic, Holevas said. She coulf not predict the longevity of thenew jobs. “Asd the business changes so do ouremployment needs,” Holevasx said. “We staff according to needs.
” As the number of foreclosures continues to rise Chase is far from the only bank to boosgt its staff for handlingtroubled mortgages. Some banks, including M&Iu Marshall & Ilsley in Milwaukee, have instituted foreclosure moratoriums as they attemptt to modify mortgages toreduce payments. M&I’sz foreclosure moratorium is scheduled to expire onJune 30. In the past six M&I has increased by 50 percentr its staff dedicated to assisting the increasing number of homeowners facingfinancial stress, said Dick president of the bank’s Wisconsin community bank unit. He declineed to disclose the number of jobsthat M&Ik has added.
M&I works with homeownersw before they reach delinquency to avoid foreclosure and also seeks solutions for homeowneres alreadyin foreclosure, Becker said. Minneapolis-based , whicj has the second-largest deposit markef share in metropolitan Milwaukee and services more than 1 milliobmortgages nationally, announced in March that it is constructintg a building in Owensboro, Ky., for its mortgage service unit.
The bank already employs 850 peoplw in Owensboro and the new buildingg will accommodate up to 300 new At the communitybank level, the loan modification strategies are implementec on a smaller For example, , Wauwatosa, increased its collections staftf from two to three plus a half-time employee to tackles the increased workload, said president and CEO Doug Collections employees review the home-owner’ s financial situation in an effort to avoid Gordon said. The employees discuss what the homeownere can afford for payments and whether the mortgage is he said.
The bank has successfullyg modified many mortgages and even stoppecd some foreclosures while they werein process, he “We’d much rather modify them — work with them than foreclose,” Gordon said. “Nobody wins in We don’t want to own the real estate andthey don’yt want to lose the real estate.”