Bank of America has filled a key vacancy by hiring Claus Lund as head of mortgage sales in the secondary market, officials at the bank confirmed.
The hiring of Mr. Lund, a respected mortgage securities specialist, indicates the San Francisco giant's intention to continue selling an increasingly large portion of its new mortgages.
The job opening at the bank developed when Luke Hayden, a Security Pacific executive who was slated to run secondary mortgage sales, declined the position shortly before the April merger of BankAmerica Corp. and Security Pacific Corp.
Mr. Hayden subsequently left to take a similar mortgage post at Chemical Banking Corp. in New York.
Diverse Background
Mr. Lund -- described by colleagues and competitors as a dry-witted man who speaks several languages fluently -- has for the past 18 months been director of mortgage-backed securities for Sun America Financial, a Los Angeles-based insurance concern.
Previously, he held mortgage and capital market posts at Columbia Savings and Loan Association, the Beverly Hills-based thrift that was seized in January 1991.
He is slated to join Bank of America in two weeks as a senior vice president. In addition to running mortgage loan sales, he will manage the company's pipeline of mortgages in progress and about $24 billion of mortgages in its portfolio.
Bank of America expects to sell about half of its new mortgages this year, up from 35% in 1991, said senior vice president Graham Williams.
Mr. Lund, who wasn't available for comment, has a remarkably diverse background.
His resume shows that he earned a masters degree in Germanic studies from Stanford University in 1980.
For the next three years, he taught philology at the University of Iceland. He returned to the Golden State and earned a masters in business administration in 1985 from the University of California, Los Angeles.
