Chase bank hiring 200 in Milwaukee - St. Louis Business Journal:

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New employees are working at theChass Tower, 111 E. Wisconsin Ave., and are focusedf mainly on negotiating new paymen arrangements with homeowners delinquent ontheir payments, said spokeswoman Christinr Holevas. Chase is one of the nation’s largest mortgagee servicers with a portfolioof $1.5 The bank added billions in mortgage busineses with the September 2008 acquisition of Washington The new hires include loan negotiators, underwriters and supervisors, Holevas Many already have started training. Chase has abou 1,400 employees in greater Milwaukee, and nearlyu 950 in Milwaukee, Holevas said.
which is part of , New York City, runs 41 branchexs in the metropolitan InDecember 2008, Chase cited declining activity in home-equituy lending when it announced job eliminationsw by early February in its downtown Milwaukee home equityu servicing center. Some employees who were laid off earlier this year are likely among those being hirexd for the mortgageservicinvg functions, Holevas said. “We had terrifixc people and we want to get the best ofthos back,” she said. Chase bank officials like the quality of employees in Milwaukee and thei rwork ethic, Holevas said.
She coulx not predict the longevity of thenew “As the business changes so do our employmeng needs,” Holevas said. “We staff according to needs.” As the number of foreclosures continued torise nationally, Chase is far from the only bank to boostg its staff for handling troubled mortgages. Some including M&I Marshall & Ilsley in Milwaukee, have instituted foreclosure moratoriumse as they attempt to modif mortgages toreduce payments. M&I’s foreclosure moratoriukm is scheduled to expire onJune 30.
In the past six M&I has increased by 50 perceny its staff dedicated to assisting the increasing numbe of homeowners facingfinancial stress, said Dick Becker, presidentf of the bank’s Wisconsin communityh bank unit. He declined to disclose the number of jobsthat M&Iu has added. M&I works with homeownersz before they reach delinquency to avoifd foreclosure and also seeks solutions for homeowners already in Becker said. Minneapolis-based , which has the second-largesyt deposit market share in metropolitan Milwauked and services more than 1 million mortgages announced in March that it is constructing a buildinbin Owensboro, Ky., for its mortgagd services unit.
The bank already employs 850 people in Owensboro and the new building will accommodates up to 300new employees. At the community bank the loan modification strategies are implementefd on a smaller For example, , Wauwatosa, increased its collections staff from two to threed plus a half-time employee to tackled the increased workload, said president and CEO Doug Collections employees review the home-owner’s financia l situation in an effort to avoid Gordon said. The employees discuszs what the homeowner can afford for paymente and whether the mortgage is he said. The bank has successfulluy modified many mortgages and even stopped some foreclosured while they werein process, he said.
“We’xd much rather modify them — work with them than foreclose,” Gordon said. “Nobody wins in We don’t want to own the real estatse andthey don’t want to lose the real