Citicorp Mortgage Inc. has reassigned a top executive in connection with a restructuring of some operations.
The president and chief operating officer of the lender's St. Louis home mortgage servicing operation, Mark DeVine, has been made president of the San Antonio processing unit, Citicorp Data Systems Inc.
Mr. DeVine will not be replaced at the St. Louis subsidiary, National Credit and Mortgage Services. Instead, top servicing executives will report directly to Carl Levinson, chairman of Citicorp Mortgage, Stamford, Conn.
A spokeswoman for Citicorp said the change was spurred by the retirement in March of Richard G. McCrossen. The director of systems and technology for Europe and North America branches had created much of Citicorp's processing capability. He oversaw all the bank's systems and technology operations, including mortgage servicing.
Contrary to market trends, the mortgage company's home loan servicing portfolio shrank 10.7% last year, to $40.4 billion. The unit is now the 13th-largest servicer in the nation.
The lender's parent, Citicorp, has fared well in recent quarters. But last month it cut 100 jobs in its mortgage securitization unit, Citicorp Securities Inc., New York.
Citicorp Mortgage has taken steps to improve its franchise in today's slow lending market. It initiated a high-profile search for an executive to head a new unit to lend through professional associations and trade groups - a business known as affinity lending.
Sources in the affinity lending market have said Citicorp was offering a particularly high salary to nab the best banker to head the unit.
No appointment has been announced.
Citicorp Mortgage is one of the first lenders to use the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.'s new automated underwriting system, Loan Prospector. Mr. Levinson has said the computerized system should lead to greater product diversity at Citicorp Mortgage and lower costs for borrowers.
