And an even larger majority—61 percent—said the government should not help out the banks that made those loans. Only 15 percent of those surveyed said banks should receive federal assistance.

Nearly one-third (29 percent) said the federal government should take action to assist such homeowners; 17 percent said they were not sure. The Rasmussen national telephone survey, conducted with Fox Television Stations Inc., took place in late March.

Rasmussen officials said the poll results were consistent with an earlier survey (December) in which 54 percent of Americans said individual borrowers, not Wall Street investors, were responsible for their own actions in obtaining loans that they could not repay.

The current survey further broke down responses by party affiliation. It found that respondents who identified themselves as Republican tended to be more strongly opposed (68 percent) to a federal bailout than Democrats (53 percent). Of those who identified themselves as independents (not affiliated with either major party), 64 percent opposed a bailout.

In providing assistance to homeowners who borrowed more than they could afford, Democrats were evenly divided. Republicans oppose federal assistance by 67 percent to 19 percent; 55 percent of those not affiliated with either party also oppose federal support for those troubled homeowners. Just 24 percent of the unaffiliated believe federal help is a good idea.

The survey comes as the Senate debates an economic stimulus package that appears to have broad bipartisan support, as well as qualified support from the real estate finance industry.

The survey also found that 31 percent believe the private sector has a bigger impact on the health of the economy than Congress, the Administration or the Federal Reserve. Twenty-eight percent said that Congress had the biggest impact, while 14 percent named the President and another 14 percent named the Federal Reserve.
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Holsapple has more than 11 years of mortgage industry product management and development experience. Prior to joining Del Mar DataTrac, he served in technology management positions for Mical Mortgage, Finet Mortgage and AME Mortgage. 

Pro-Teck Services Promotes Puleo
Pro-Tech Services, Waltham, Mass., promoted Domenica Puleo to marketing manager, responsible for coordinating and managing marketing strategies.

Puleo began her career at Pro-Teck Services in November of 2002 as a vendor manager and transitioned into the sales and marketing department.  

Arbor Promotes Sganga, Hires Rael
Arbor Commercial Mortgage LLC, Uniondale, N.Y., promoted Valerie Sganga to vice president of operations. She will manage the legal due diligence and closing of Fannie Mae and structured transactions as well as coordination of warehouse fundings. In addition, she will be involved in various aspects of compliance with both Arbor Realty Trust and structured securitizations.

Sganga previously served as assistant vice president of operations. She joined Arbor in 1999 as a closing coordinator and has held positions in Arbor’s capital markets and legal departments.

Arbor Commercial Mortgage also appointed Felipe Rael to director in Arbor’s Albuquerque, N.M. office. He will be responsible for Arbor’s loan offerings including Fannie Mae, FHA, CMBS, Bridge, Mezzanine and Preferred Equity.

Prior to joining Arbor, Rael served as a regional manager with LaSalle Bank’s Real Estate Capital Markets division through its transition to Bank of America. Previously, he held positions with Bascom Group and Berkshire Mortgage.

GE Real Estate Hires Hines as Senior Director
GE Real Estate, Norwalk, Conn., announced that Michael Hines joined the firm as senior director of the North America Lending division. He will be based in the San Francisco office and will cover Northern California and the Pacific Northwest region, responsible for generating and analyzing real estate loan requests for the structured finance and CMBS programs.

Hines comes to GE Real Estate from Merrill Lynch Capital, where he held numerous positions, including director, region manager and senior investment officer. Before that, he was an investment officer with Heller Financial. Earlier in his career, Hines held real estate positions with a number of other firms, including Mutual Benefit Life, Barnett Banks and Bank One.

OCC Appoints Haas, Jee, Brosnan
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency appointed William Haas as deputy comptroller for Midsize Bank Supervision. He will be based in Chicago and will replace Jennifer Kelly, who will become senior deputy comptroller for Mid-Size and Community Bank Supervision.

Haas started his career with the OCC in 1984 in Grand Island, Neb., and was commissioned as a National Bank Examiner in 1988. In 1994, he transferred to Large Bank Supervision, where he served as the commercial credit lead examiner at Norwest Corp., and later as a member of the credit team at US Bank. He assumed his current position in March 2003.

The OCC also appointed Delora Jee as head of its new International Supervision Group, responsible for consolidating, coordinating and extending key international supervisory activities of the agency.

Jee previously served as deputy comptroller for Large Bank Supervision responsible for line supervision of a group of large banks, including several U.S. banks owned by large foreign banking organizations. She joined the OCC as an examiner in 1978 and was named Deputy Comptroller for Large Banks in 1997. She previously served as examiner in charge of Chase Manhattan Bank and head of the OCC’s London office.

Michael Brosnan will succeed Jee as deputy comptroller for Large Bank Supervision. He returns to the OCC after leaving the agency in 2004 to work in the private sector, first for MNBA and then for Bank of America. Among his previous positions at the OCC, he served as deputy comptroller for risk evaluation.

Hartigan Joins Garnet Capital as Chief Strategy Officer
Garnet Capital Advisors LLC, Harrison, N.Y., announced that Maurice Hartigan II joined the firm as limited partner and director of strategic development. He will manage Garnet's strategic planning process and support the firm's senior-level client relationships.

Hartigan joins Garnet following 43 years in the financial services industry, most recently as CEO of The Risk Management Association. He retired from RMA in July of 2007. Previously, he held senior positions in both client and risk management at PNC Financial Services and at Chemical Bank (now JPMorgan Chase).
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MBA's 95th Annual Convention & Expo 2008 offers strategic options to business challenges and provides a venue where you can obtain usable solutions in an evolving industry. Nowhere else will you find the exceptional range of original content and fresh information for residential mortgage bankers just when it is needed most.

The in-depth program tracks offer insight on leadership, growth strategies and trends to better position your business. In addition, take advantage of an influential mix of contemporary speakers and educational sessions that delve beyond the basics to help position your company for new opportunities in a dynamic environment.

The coming years will bring vast changes to the real estate finance industry. Make MBA's 95th Annual Convention & Expo 2008 the start of future growth. Be sure that your company is prepared with Winning Strategies for the New Age.

Who Should Attend
Because this conference is the largest annual gathering of residential real estate finance professionals and is the centerpiece event for networking and professional development, more than 60 percent of the attendees are from upper management of the industry's leading corporations.

Senior-level attendees include:

• Presidents and CEOs
• Chief Financial Officers and Chief Operating Officers
• Vice Presidents
• Managers and Directors

Attendees also include:

• National and regional lenders
• Full-service mortgage companies
• Mortgage brokers
• Mortgage conduits
• Service providers
• Affordable housing groups
• State and local association executives

Expand Your Reach
To apply for sponsorship of MBA's 95th Annual Convention & Expo 2008, download the sponsorship brochure at http://www.mortgagebankers.org/files/conferences/pdf/M2901402_sponsorbrochure.pdf or contact Phillip Giorgianni at pgiorgianni@mortgagebankers.org or (202) 557-2733 to request details on customized Sponsorship packages, production deadlines or logo/signage specifications.

Explore MBA's exhibitor opportunities by contacting Kim Newell at knewell@mortgagebankers.org or (202) 557-2791 or Patty Miller at pmiller@mortgagebankers.org or (202) 557-2792.

For more information, visit the Conference Web site at http://events.mortgagebankers.org/95th_annual/default.html.
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FHA Central is convenient for you and your business. Popular one-day classroom-based courses take place throughout the year at different locations across the United States. LIVE Online Workshops and Guided Web-based Courses leverage the value of interactive instructor-led learning at the comfort of your desk (or even on the road). FHA Central also offers publications and print-based courses that can be studied and completed at your own pace.

Visit CampusMBA FHA Central to learn more: www.campusmba.org/AllLearningProducts/FHACentral.htm?WT.mc_id=FHANL022708.

For your staff: most FHA Central programs can be offered at your location or online for your employees at your convenience. Visit www.campusmba.org or call (800) 348-8653 for more information about bringing FHA Central to your staff.

DE (Direct Endorsement): Several FHA Central programs, including FHA Fundamentals Workshop, FHA Underwriting & Operations Workshop and the FHA Fundamentals Guided Web-based Course, provide complete information on all origination, processing and underwriting requirements unique to FHA loans. Lenders across the country use these courses as part of a certification program for their processors and underwriters who are looking to become DE (Direct Endorsement) Underwriters.

Upcoming FHA Central Programs include:

• Senior FHA Bimonthly LIVE Online Conference, March 27. For more information, visit http://www.campusmba.org/products/default.aspx?product_code=E2801716K/REGIS&wt.mc_id=FHANL022808.

FHA Central Classroom-based Courses
FHA Fundamentals Workshop:
• April 10 in Chicago http://www.campusmba.org/products/default.aspx?product_code=E2801618C/REGIS&wt.mc_id=FHANL022808;

• May 1 in Miramar, Fla. http://www.campusmba.org/products/default.aspx?product_code=E2801618D/REGIS&wt.mc_id=FHANL022808, and

• July 16 in San Diego http://www.campusmba.org/products/default.aspx?product_code=E2801618E/REGIS&wt.mc_id=FHANL022808.

FHA Underwriting & Operations Workshop:

• April 11 in Chicago http://www.campusmba.org/products/default.aspx?product_code=E2801620C/REGIS&wt.mc_id=FHANL022808;

• May 2 in Miramar, Fla. http://www.campusmba.org/products/default.aspx?product_code=E2801620D/REGIS&wt.mc_id=FHANL022808; and

• July 17 in San Diego http://www.campusmba.org/products/default.aspx?product_code=E2801620E/REGIS&wt.mc_id=FHANL022808.

Special Bundled Pricing: Attend both FHA Fundamentals and FHA Underwriting & Operations Workshops in the same location and save on registration fees.
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Instant prescreen technology integrates with a financial institution’s customer channels, allowing the institutions to prescreen any existing customers for additional credit products whenever and however those customers contact them, the report said. The offers can be prioritized based on relevancy or appeal to customer as well.

Stephen Margrett, CEO of The Turning Point Inc., Sedona, Ariz., sees instant prescreening as a method to keep customers in the loop, literally.

“It’s a way of maintaining the customer lifecycle, keeping customers in orbit around the company,” Margrett said. “The more data available, the richer the set and the more intelligent the communication will be. There are really no limits in how much we can bring in to the decisioning—using technology to interpret that data intelligently to support high quality relationships.”

Traditional acquisition strategies such as direct mail prescreen also aim to fulfill the same purpose of expanding a financial institution’s customer base, but have proven to be inefficient in terms of cost and time to implement, yield low return on investment and are environmentally unfriendly, Johnson said.

The report cites data from Chicago-based Synovate Mail Monitor that revealed a meager 0.3 percent return on the 6 billion credit card offers that were sent out in 2005—18 million credit card applications.

“Direct mail is by far the most commonly used method for acquiring new customers in the financial services industry,” Johnson said. “There is an inverse relationship associated with direct mail prescreen. As the volume of prescreen offers increases, the response rate for those offers decreases. In 1992, the response rate was at an all-time high, and the financial services industry mailed nearly 1 billion offers to generate roughly 25 million applications. However, in 2006, nearly 6 billion offers generated a similar response, about 29 million applications.”

Zoot Enterprises reported a 20 percent acceptance rate of its instant prescreen product, Prescreen-of-One, since its inception in 1995. Because acceptance rate is based on the type of product prescreened and customer interaction used, it can range from 5 percent to 40 percent.

“Customers have a much greater propensity to accept offers that are specifically tailored to their needs and presented to them in real-time that they already know and trust,” Johnson said. “Instant prescreen is also satisfying for the increasingly time-sensitive consumer. As society becomes more and more enthralled by the concept of instant gratification, consumers become less and less willing to wait for the results of traditional financial services.”

Johnson said adopting instant prescreening would be a competitive advantage for institutions today, achieving operational excellence to differentiate from competition while increasing profits.

“As competition in the financial industry continues to rise, every customer becomes more valuable, and that customer’s wallet becomes a background,” Johnson said. “The more services a customer has at a financial institution, the less likely it is that the customer will switch those products for a competitor’s. By focusing on expanding wallet share rather than overall customer base, instant prescreen enables financial institutions to create deeper, more loyal, more profitable relationships with existing customers.”

In light of the mortgage meltdown, however, customer relationships may be shaky at the moment—perhaps trust has become an issue.

“Trust is really a function of a relationship," Margrett said. "If you are a provider of a product or service like a mortgage, which is an infrequent purchase, complex and expensive and perceived to be a risky undertaking by the customer, then there is a requirement on the provider of that mortgage to create and maintain a high quality relationship. Customer retention is about maintaining and creating high quality relationships. Trust naturally evolves out of the relationship—you can’t create it directly. What you can create is confidence and belief; trust evolves out of that.”

Margrett advocated maintaining contact with the customer on a regular basis. But he said the messaging has changed given the circumstances. “Messaging has to deliberately address rebuilding trust without referring to an actual loss of trust." he said. "We’re seeing a larger emphasis on credentials—years in existence, knowledge of the local market and so forth.”

Judy Margrett, president of The Turning Point Inc., said, “Consumers are fear-fatigued—it’s constantly about the bad mortgage people. The power of referral is really big right now and it can’t be downplayed. It’s about foundation marketing which is building loyalty and constant communications for a strong relationship. Customers get fearful when they are hearing all sorts of things in a mixed-message environment.”

"It used to be that business was so easy and customers were seen as as business transactions rather than relationships," she added. "It doesn’t have a lot of gain at the commercial level, but you have a relationship. Keeping the relationship going is important."
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