Chase bank hiring 200 in Milwaukee - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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New employees are working at theChasew Tower, 111 E. Wisconsin and are focused mainly on negotiating new paymeng arrangements with homeowners delinquent ontheir payments, said spokeswoma n Christine Holevas. Chase is one of the nation’as largest mortgage servicers with a portfolikof $1.5 trillion. The bank added billions in mortgags business with the Septembeer 2008 acquisition ofWashington Mutual. The new hires include loan negotiators, underwriters and supervisors, Holevas said. Many alread y have started training. Chase has about 1,4090 employees in greater Milwaukee, and nearly 950 in Milwaukee, Holevas said.
Chase, which is part of , New York runs 41 branches in themetropolitan area. In Decemberf 2008, Chase cited declining activityin home-equity lending when it announcedd job eliminations by early Februarty in its downtown Milwaukee home equity servicing center. Some employees who were laid off earlierd this year are likely among those being hired for the mortgagweservicing functions, Holevas said. “We had terrific people and we want to get the best ofthosre back,” she said. Chase bank officials like the qualitt of employees in Milwaukee and theirwork ethic, Holevasd said.
She could not predict the longevity of thenew “As the business changes so do our employmenrt needs,” Holevas said. “We staff according to customers’ As the number of foreclosures continues torise nationally, Chasre is far from the only bank to boost its staff for handling troubled mortgages. Some including M&I Marshall & Ilsleg in Milwaukee, have institutesd foreclosure moratoriums as they attempt to modify mortgagesd toreduce payments. M&I’s foreclosure moratorium is scheduled to expire onJune 30.
In the past six M&I has increased by 50 percent its staff dedicated to assisting the increasinh number of homeowners facing financial saidDick Becker, president of the bank’s Wisconsin community bank He declined to disclose the number of jobs that M& I has added. M&I works with homeowners before they reach delinquenc y to avoid foreclosure and also seeks solutionas for homeowners already in Becker said. Minneapolis-based , whichy has the second-largest deposit market sharse in metropolitan Milwaukee and services more than 1 millionmortgages nationally, announced in March that it is constructing a building in Ky., for its mortgage services unit.
The bank alreadyg employs 850 people in Owensboro and the new buildinv will accommodate up to 300 new At the communitybank level, the loan modification strategiese are implemented on a smaller scale. For example, , increased its collections staff from two to three plusa half-timd employee to tackle the increased workload, said presidenrt and CEO Doug Gordon. Collections employees review the home-owner’ss financial situation in an effor toavoid foreclosure, Gordon The employees discuss what the homeownetr can afford for payments and whether the mortgages is salvageable, he said.
The bank has successfullh modified many mortgages and even stopped some foreclosurews while they werein process, he “We’d much rather modify them — work with them than foreclose,” Gordon said. “Nobodg wins in that. We don’t want to own the real estatee andthey don’t want to lose the real estate.”