General Electric Capital Mortgage Corp. has hired Graham Williams, a mortgage industry veteran, to head risk management.
As a senior vice president, he will be in charge of risk management for both mortgage services and mortgage insurance.
Mr. Williams had been president of ITT Residential Capital Corp., which he joined in 1992. He resigned from that position in August 1994.
After ITT, Mr. Williams had a short stint at First Interstate Bank, where he was head of loan production in the bank's residential mortgage division since January of this year.
Before ITT, Mr. Williams was briefly head of mortgage banking at Bank of America, where he managed mortgage production and secondary marketing.
The position he is filling at GE Capital was vacated earlier this year when Stuart M. Lopes left the job. In March, Mr. Lopes was reassigned to "help the company put greater focus on automation and its impact on the industry," a spokesman said at the time. Since that reassignment, Mr. Lopes resigned from GE to pursue other opportunities, according to a company spokesman.
GE has undergone a series of executive changes as it reshapes its business. It has exited the retail side, never a big contributor, and recently took to the sidelines in wholesale lending because of weak pricing in a highly competitive market.
A spokesman said recently that the company had a strong commitment to the wholesale lending arm of GE Capital Mortgage despite the decline in volume in the first half of this year. The spokesman said volume had already rebounded.
In August, GE said it had made a strategic decision to leave the retail side of mortgage lending. Retail was never a big part of GE's originations - it was doing business through a computerized origination system, Residential Express, rolled out in 1991.
The unit is being sold to Knutson Mortgage Corp. Later in August, Lawrence Spera left GE for Knutson, run by another GE alumnus, Ray Sims, who had earlier headed GE's retail unit.
At the end of last year, the positions of president and chief operating officer were created for Mike Zafirovski.
The picture at GE could change abruptly if the company proves to be the successful bidder for the business of Prudential Home Mortgage Corp. Pru is expected to make an announcement soon.
