For the first time in more than four years, someone new is about to be leading JPMorgan Chase’s mortgage business.
Since late 2015, Chase Mortgage has been under the leadership of Mike Weinbach, but Weinbach recently stepped down from that role. According to Bloomberg, which first reported the news, Weinbach is leaving Chase for an unnamed “external opportunity.”
When reached for comment by HousingWire, a Chase spokesperson confirmed Weinbach’s departure but did not provide any additional details on the nature of Weinbach’s exit from the company.
The spokesperson added that Chase’s mortgage operations will now roll up to Marianne Lake, the CEO of the bank’s consumer lending business, which includes mortgage lending, card services and auto finance.
Lake, who is considered to be among the potential replacements for CEO Jamie Dimon when he retires, has been with the bank since 1999.
Weinbach, meanwhile, leaves Chase after spending nearly 20 years with the bank. Prior to leading the company’s mortgage business, Weinbach was head of mortgage servicing, a role he held for more than two years.
According to Weinbach’s Chase bio, which is still up on the company’s site as of Tuesday morning, as head of servicing, Weinbach “managed a portfolio of 6.3 million mortgages representing a combined balance of more than $900 billion.”
Earlier in his career at Chase, Weinbach has worked across various businesses, including consumer banking, business banking, auto and mortgage.
According to Bloomberg’s reporting, Lake announced Weinbach’s departure in a memo to the company’s employees.
From Bloomberg:
Lake praised Weinbach for “leading home lending through a period of significant change as we put our regulatory issues behind us and worked to build a high-quality, less-volatile business.” A spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo.
During his time leading Chase’s mortgage business, Weinbach was recognized as a HW Vanguard, an award reserved for the top leaders in the housing business.
As Bloomberg noted, Weinbach led the bank to growth in its mortgage business from an origination volume standpoint in 2019, but that growth did not translate into an increase in revenue.
According to the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings materials, Chase originated $33.3 billion in mortgages in the fourth quarter. That’s up from $32.4 billion in the third quarter, $24.5 billion in the second quarter, $15 billion in the first quarter, and $17.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Overall, the bank’s origination volume increased from $79.4 billion in 2018 to $105.2 billion in 2019, an increase of more than 32%.
Despite than increase, the bank’s revenue from mortgage lending was actually down last year. According to the bank’s earnings materials, Chase’s mortgage business generated $5.18 billion in revenue in 2019, down from $5.48 billion in 2018.
And now, the bank is looking for a new person to lead its mortgage business.
