Fleet Hires Former Rival Exec To Steer $122B in Loan Servicing

Fleet Mortgage Group is continuing to take advantage of mergers in the mortgage business to add to its management team.

The Columbia, S.C., lender announced Thursday that it has hired Robert A. Rosen, formerly of North American Mortgage Co., to be executive vice president of loan servicing.

Dime Bancorp completed its acquisition of North American this month. The New York thrift is keeping North American's portfolio but selling North American's California servicing center to Southern Pacific Funding Corp., a subprime mortgage lender.

Fleet also recently hired two executives from American Home Funding for its loan production unit. American Home Funding's parent, Rochester Community Savings Bank, was acquired by Charter One Financial Corp. this month.

Thomas C. Palmer joined Fleet from American Home Funding in September as executive vice president for loan production. Michael M. Massella was hired this month as senior vice president of national retail and wholesale loan production.

Mr. Rosen, who will start at Fleet Nov. 17, spent six years at North American, where he oversaw a $13 billion portfolio. North American has been primarily a seller of mortgage servicing in recent years.

At Fleet, Mr. Rosen will be in charge of a growing portfolio that is almost 10 times larger than North American's. Fleet's $122 billion servicing portfolio is the nation's fourth-largest.

Servicing brokers said Mr. Rosen is widely respected in the industry and will be up to the task of managing such a large portfolio.

Michael J. Torke, Fleet Mortgage's president, said Mr. Rosen will focus on taking the servicing platform "to the next level of performance and efficiency through the use of advanced technology."

Fleet is updating the servicing systems at its centers in Milwaukee and Florence, S.C.

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