Homebank Hires Chemical Executive; Norwest Taps a Veteran for Pru

Two mortgage companies have installed new executives to handle growing volume.

HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. has hired an executive from the mortgage unit of Chemical Bank to oversee secondary marketing.

Norwest Mortgage Co. has chosen a veteran executive to administer the soon-to-be acquired servicing portfolio of Prudential Home Mortgage Co.

As executive vice president at Atlanta-based HomeBanc, Richard D. Boyd will oversee lending to borrowers with blemished credit records, construction lending, and secondary marketing.

HomeBanc operates in Atlanta and Orlando, both hot markets, and it is beginning an expansion into Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which is seeing a surge of residential construction.

"Our primary focus is to have a crack product-development team that can respond very quickly to the secondary market," Mr. Boyd said. "We must continuously keep the pulse of who is in the secondary market and what they are looking for."

Mr. Boyd has been a mortgage executive for more than a decade, most recently as a first vice president at Chemical Residential Mortgage Corp. He also held various sales posts at Prudential Home Mortgage.

At Norwest, Cara Heiden will supervise servicing and post-closing for the $40 billion Prudential portfolio that Norwest will group with its own loans.

The combined portfolio, at $147 billion, will be the biggest in the industry when the deal closes, pushing Norwest just ahead of Countrywide Credit Industries, Pasadena, Calif., and the combined Chase-Chemical.

Des Moines-based Norwest Mortgage agreed in January after protracted negotiations to buy the Prudential portfolio. Terms were not disclosed, but industry sources have put the price at about $700 million.

Ms. Heiden, who started at Norwest in 1981, will report to Mark Korell, president of lender and investor services.

Her appointment helps usher in a new era at Norwest, Mr. Korell said. The organization will continue to seek out opportunities for growth, he said.

Norwest estimates that it already provides funding for one out of every 20 mortgages that are financed in the United States, including a large number of lower-income loans.

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