Expert in Fraud Prevention Quits Citi For Firm Focusing on Defaulted

Constance A. Mackey, a nationally known expert on fraud prevention, has left her fraud-fighter post at Citicorp Mortgage to join a start-up servicing operation.

Her new employer is New City Asset Management Inc., a St. Louis company formed in February to buy, service, and consult on defaulted loans. It appears to have ambitious marketing plans.

No replacement for Ms. Mackey has been named by the Stamford, Conn.- based lender.

Ms. Mackey was instrumental in raising the awareness of quality control and loan-fraud prevention at Citicorp and throughout the mortgage industry. Fraud prevention is now considered a much greater priority by most lenders than it was when Ms. Mackey joined Citicorp nine years ago.

Citicorp has made some personnel changes at its St. Louis servicing operation recently. Last month, the subsidiary of Citicorp reassigned Mark DeVine, president and chief operating officer of the lender's operation, to a processing unit in San Antonio.

At the same time, Carl Levinson, chairman of Citicorp Mortgage, took over Mr. DeVine's responsibilities. Mr. DeVine will not be replaced.

Citicorp Mortgage's servicing portfolio shrank 10.7% in 1994, to $40.4 billion.

Ms. Mackey is now one of four employees at New City. She has the title of senior vice president.

She is responsible for all antifraud and quality control operations to protect the servicing rights New City will buy. She will also conduct seminars on how to prevent loan fraud.

"Connie's expertise in the fraud area goes far beyond the boundaries of a typical fraud group executive," said Steven C. Halper, president of New City.

While at Citicorp, Ms. Mackey held fraud prevention seminars for agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service, among other law enforcement agencies. She said many lenders called Citicorp when she was an employee there, asking that she hold a seminar for them.

She said she would hold such a conference under New City's aegis, open to the entire lending industry, in the fall in New York City.

"I am really hoping to be able to share with the industry all the things that we have learned in the last eight years," she said. "I think there is a real need in the industry for training, true training, I mean not just a seminar but training document by document, from the prevention side."

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