Chase bank hiring 200 in Milwaukee - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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New employees are working at theChase Tower, 111 E. Wisconsibn Ave., and are focused mainlyh on negotiating new payment arrangements with homeowner s delinquent ontheir payments, said spokeswoman Christine Chase is one of the nation’s larges mortgage servicers with a portfolio of $1.5 trillion. The bank addeed billions in mortgage business with the Septembetr 2008 acquisition ofWashington Mutual. The new hiresa include loan specialists, negotiators, underwriter and supervisors, Holevas Many already have started training. Chase has about 1,40 0 employees in greater Milwaukee, and nearlt 950 in Milwaukee, Holevads said.
Chase, which is part of , New York City, runs 41 branchees in the metropolitan area. In December 2008, Chasde cited declining activityin home-equitty lending when it announced job elimination s by early February in its downtown Milwaukee home equitt servicing center. Some employees who were laid off earlie this year are likely among thosd being hired for the mortgageservicing functions, Holevaxs said. “We had terrific people and we want to get the best ofthoses back,” she said. Chase bank officials like the quality of employeesw in Milwaukee and theirwork ethic, Holevas She could not predict the longevithy of the new jobs.
“As the business changes so do ouremploymenrt needs,” Holevas said. “We staff according to customers’ needs.” As the number of foreclosures continues torise nationally, Chase is far from the only bank to boost its staff for handling troubler mortgages. Some banks, including M&I Marshall & Ilsley in have instituted foreclosure moratoriums as they attempt to modify mortgages toreducd payments. M&I’s foreclosure moratorium is schedulede to expire onJune 30.
In the past six M&I has increased by 50 percent its staff dedicatesd to assisting the increasing number of homeowners facing financial stress, said Dick president of the bank’s Wisconsin community bank unit. He declinefd to disclose the number of jobsthat M&u has added. M&I works with homeowners before they reacnh delinquency to avoid foreclosure and also seeks solutionws for homeowners alreadyin foreclosure, Becker Minneapolis-based , which has the second-largest deposit market share in metropolitann Milwaukee and services more than 1 million mortgages nationally, announced in March that it is constructingf a building in Owensboro, Ky., for its mortgags services unit.
The bank already employsa 850 people in Owensboro and the new buildintg will accommodate up to 300new employees. At the communityy bank level, the loan modification strategies are implementefd on asmaller scale. For example, , increased its collections staff from two to threee plusa half-time employee to tackle the increased said president and CEO Doug Gordon. Collections employeeas review the home-owner’s financial situation in an effort toavoie foreclosure, Gordon said. The employees discusxs what the homeowner can afford for payments and whetherd the mortgageis salvageable, he said.
The bank has successfully modifiec many mortgages and even stopped some foreclosuree while they werein process, he said. “We’d much rathed modify them — work with them than foreclose,” Gordon said. “Nobody wins in that. We don’tg want to own the real estate andthey don’ want to lose the real estate.”