The chief executive of the Mortgage Bankers Association will leave the trade group at the end of June, slightly more than one year after becoming the organization's chief executive, the organization said on Wednesday.
David Stevens, who last year joined the MBA in an unexpected shakeup after heading the Federal Housing Administration for two years, will become president in mid-July of SunTrust Mortgage, the home lending division of Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI), the bank said on Wednesday.
The MBA, which last year bought out the contract of its outgoing chief executive to recruit Stevens, is conducting a search for a new leader and appointed Marcia Davies, who served as Stevens's chief of staff, as interim head.
Stevens was brought in to help improve the trade group's clout in Washington, which had taken a beating in the aftermath of the housing bust. Last month, MBA officials and senior banking executives met with senior White House advisers to discuss a series of challenges facing the industry, a sign of the trade group's rehabilitation.
"Although we are sorry to see him leave so soon, he leaves us well-positioned for the future," said Michael Young, the MBA's chairman.
The MBA has also faced recurring tension between larger and smaller banks, which sometimes have competing interests on regulations that could reshape the housing-finance landscape.
Stevens has urged industry executives to be more proactive on major policy issues confronting the industry, including any overhaul of Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC). At a conference in New York this month, he said the industry should work together to develop a common mortgage security that would essentially unify the mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie and Freddie. Doing so could help lay the groundwork for a continued government guarantee of certain mortgages, even if the firms are eventually wound down or privatized.
Stevens joined the Obama administration in 2009, where he became a top housing adviser, after serving as chief executive of real-estate brokerage Long & Foster Cos. He had previously held senior positions at Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Freddie Mac during a 25-year career in the industry.
Stevens has told colleagues that he had longed to return to working in mortgage finance, and his name surfaced as a candidate for the open chief executive position at Fannie Mae. At times during his three-year detour into public policy, he had chafed with the slow, at-times frustrating nature of the policy-making process, said a person familiar with his thinking. This person said Stevens didn't want the final chapter of his career to be that of a trade group lobbyist.
"After three years in the public policy arena, one thing is very clear to me: I am a mortgage industry executive first and foremost. My passion lies within the business," Stevens said in an email to colleagues.
At SunTrust, Stevens will handle day-to-day business operations for the bank's growing mortgage division beginning in mid-July. He will report to Jerome Lienhard, CEO of SunTrust Mortgage, who is ceding the position of president of the mortgage unit. He called Stevens a "high-caliber leader" in a statement on Wednesday.
Stevens played a key role as the commissioner of the FHA, the government mortgage insurance agency that saw its business volumes explode dramatically following the collapse of the private market in 2007 and 2008. The FHA has seen its mortgage defaults rise sharply, forcing the agency to raise insurance premiums to avoid a taxpayer bailout.
