Chase Manhattan Mortgage's secondary marketing chief, Walter Buczynski, is jumping to a top spot at GE Capital Mortgage Services.
Mr. Buczynski is to start next Tuesday as executive vice president of capital markets at GE Capital Mortgage in Cherry Hill, N.J. He succeeds Stewart Koenigsburg, who is taking an executive spot with the parent, GE Capital.
At Chase, the industry's third-largest originator and servicer, Mr. Buczynski reported to Luke Hayden, the executive vice president of market risk at the company's Edison, N.J., securitization group.
Chase has divvied up Mr. Buczynski's responsibilities among executives in the group, and it was unclear whether the company would name a successor.
One executive close to Chase said it was considering speaking with Mark Korell, the former president of Norwest Mortgage and a capital markets specialist.
A Chase spokesman played down the prospect, however, saying: "Certainly we are aware of him, but we are not actively talking to him." Mr. Korell could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Buczynski, who was not in the office this week, came to Chase through its merger with Chemical Banking Corp. in 1996. Before that, he had been a top lieutenant at Margaretten Mortgage Corp., which Chemical bought in 1994.
His departure came at a sensitive time for Chase Mortgage, which has seen numerous departures since the merger with Chemical. Most recently, Chase has alleged in a Florida court that Dime Bancorp illegally recruited about 50 of its mortgage bankers.
The allegation, which Dime has denied, came after the departure of Chase Mortgage's chief executive, Richard Mirro, and a senior vice president, Thomas Glenn, to Dime.
The Chase spokesman said Mr. Buczynski's departure was not considered in the same light. He also said Chase retains a strong group of executives and has been adding people, including a chief mortgage securities trader, Timothy Phil, from a unit of Norwest Corp.
At GE Mortgage, Mr. Buczynski will report directly to unit president Jenne Britell and oversee hedging of pipeline and servicing risk and relationships with Wall Street.
He joins a relatively new management team of Ms. Britell, who came to GE from Dime Savings Bank last year, and production chief Graham Williams, who came aboard last year from Imperial Credit Industries.
"We are excited about having someone of Walter's caliber," a GE Mortgage spokesman said. The company, already among the top originators and servicers, has been revamping operations in an attempt to capture more volume.
