MARVIN I. MOSKOWITZ, who heads up the huge mortgage banking operations of Prudential Insurance Co. of America, has found some more work for himself.
Mr. Moskowitz, 51 was recently given the added title of president of a Prudential group that includes both the mortgage unit and a sprawling network of more than 1,000 realty offices.
Industry observes say the assignment suggests that Prudential Home Mortgage Corp., Clayton, Mo., will be seeking to get more loans through the network, Prudential Real Estate Affiliates. Right now, the mortgage units gets minimal amounts of loans from the realty offices.
In an interview last week, Mr. Moskowitz acknowledged that the two units will be "working more closely" with each other.
However, he said, he plans to move cautiously to avoid upsetting the hundreds of mortgage banks and brokers that funnel new loans to the mortgage unit. Many of those companies actively call on the realty offices themselves.
Mr. Moskowitz said his team has been meeting with a panel of feeder lenders to to "discuss ways for them to do more business with Prudential Real Estate Affiliates."
That, of course would indirectly bring more mortgages to Prudential Home Mortgage, the nation's second largest originator.
"If Prudential can continue to deliver the service and pricing that it has in the past, its share of mortgages from [the realty network] should increase, particularly with the assistance of our mortgage banker and broker customers," Mr. Moskowitz said.
Such balancing acts are by no means new to Mr. Moskowitz.
Starting almost from scratch in 1986, he has built Prudential's mortgage operation into both a leading lender and top supplier of services to other lenders. For example, an affiliate of the company, Lender's Services Inc., boasts the largest appraisal network in the country.
A Successful Formula
The formula appears to be working well. Prudential Home Mortgage produced $28.5 billion of loans last year, up from less than $6 billion just two years earlier. Meantime, its servicing portfolio mushroomed to $42.6 billion.
In a recently released annual report, Prudential's cluster of residential mortgage businesses disclosed that it earned $63 million last year, up from $29 million in 1991. More important, the report said, "net value added" climbed to $177 million from $101 million in 1991.
Net value added, according to the report, is "an unaudited internal measure, equal to net income [loss] adjusted for the after-tax cost of long-term compensation expense and the net after-tax change in the value of the servicing portfolio."
Mr. Moskowitz came to Prudential after 17 years with Citicorp, where he held management posts in treasury, foreign exchange, corporate banking, and strategic planning. He last job there was a top post in the company's mortgage operations.
