Chase bank hiring 200 in Milwaukee - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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New employees are workingf at theChase Tower, 111 E. Wisconsinb Ave., and are focused mainlu on negotiating new payment arrangements with homeownerd delinquent ontheir payments, said spokeswoman Christinre Holevas. Chase is one of the nation’s larges mortgage servicers with a portfolioof $1.5 trillion. The bank addede billions in mortgage business with the September 2008 acquisitiom ofWashington Mutual. The new hirexs include loan specialists, negotiators, underwriters and supervisors, Holevase said. Many already have started training. Chasw has about 1,400 employees in greater Milwaukee, and nearly 950 in Holevas said.
Chase, which is part of , New York runs 41 branches in themetropolitan area. In December 2008, Chase citede declining activityin home-equitty lending when it announced job eliminationsw by early February in its downtown Milwaukee home equityg servicing center. Some employees who were laid off earliet this year are likely among those being hiredr for the mortgageservicing functions, Holevas “We had terrific people and we want to get the best of those she said. Chase bank officials like the quality of employeezs in Milwaukee and theirwork ethic, Holevas said. She could not predicrt the longevity of thenew jobs.
“As the busines changes so do ouremployment needs,” Holevas “We staff according to customers’ needs.” As the numbert of foreclosures continues to rise Chase is far from the only bank to boost its stafv for handling troubled mortgages. Some banks, including M&I Marshall Ilsley in Milwaukee, have instituted foreclosurs moratoriums as they attempt to modify mortgagess toreduce payments. M&I’s foreclosure moratorium is schedulef to expire onJune 30.
In the past six M&I has increased by 50 percent its stafcf dedicated to assisting the increasing numbe of homeowners facingfinancialk stress, said Dick president of the bank’s Wisconsin community bank unit. He declinecd to disclose the number of jobsthat M&k has added. M&I works with homeownersz before they reach delinquency to avoid foreclosurs and also seeks solutions for homeowners alreadhin foreclosure, Becker said. Minneapolis-based , whicuh has the second-largest deposit market share in metropolitanh Milwaukee and services more than 1 millio nmortgages nationally, announced in March that it is constructinb a building in Owensboro, Ky., for its mortgag services unit.
The bank already employs 850 peopler in Owensboro and the new building will accommodate up to 300 new At the community bank the loan modification strategies are implementes on asmaller scale. For example, , increased its collections staff from two to threer plusa half-time employee to tackle the increased workload, said presidentt and CEO Doug Gordon. Collections employees review the home-owner’s financial situatiob in an effort toavoid foreclosure, Gordonh said. The employees discuss what the homeowner can affor for payments and whether the mortgage is he said.
The bank has successfully modified many mortgages and even stoppedf some foreclosures while they werein process, he “We’d much rather modifyy them — work with them than foreclose,” Gordon said. “Nobody wins in We don’t want to own the real estatre andthey don’t want to lose the real