MBA’s Stevens Departs to Head SunTrust Mortgage

By Donna Borak and Jeff Horwitz

MAY 30, 2012 11:38am ET

WASHINGTON – David Stevens, the president and chief executive officer of the Mortgage Bankers Association, will leave the trade group at the end of the month to become president of SunTrust Mortgage.

Stevens, 55, was at the helm of the MBA for a just a little over a year after leaving his position as assistant secretary for housing and commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Although we are sorry to see him leave so soon, he leaves us well-positioned for the future,” said Michael Young, MBA’s chairman, in a press release. “Dave delivered on his pledge to enhance MBA’s position as the industry’s leading voice.”

Marcia Davies, Stevens chief of staff at the MBA and his former deputy at HUD for industry relations, will serve as interim head of the association. A search for a permanent replacement is already underway.

Stevens arrived at the MBA last May at a point when the organization was struggling to fill a credibility gap. As a former booster for many of the excesses of the housing boom, the organization’s public policy positions faced great skepticism. In perhaps the most notorious incident, the MBA entered into a short sale and renegotiated its debt on its Washington D.C. headquarters even as Stevens’ predecessor, John Courson, argued that borrowers had a moral responsibility to pay their debts.

The MBA shifted course by bringing in Stevens, then an Obama administration appointee who had spent two years working to prevent the Federal Housing Administration’s reserves from being overwhelmed by losses.

When a series in American Banker examined emails suggesting Stevens and his deputies had maintained cozy ties with the industry while at HUD, Stevens said it his was job to mediate between mortgage lenders and Washington, describing his work at the MBA as an extension of his public service.

“Everybody was surprised that I didn’t go back to the industry,” he said then. “This was a chance to help. I thought there needed to be a voice of reason with integrity and responsibility on the mortgage bankers’ side.”

During his year-long tenure, Stevens repositioned the MBA to focus on shaping a slew of new consumer protection rules and regulations intended to reduce risky lending. He framed many of the MBA’s concerns as housing access issues.

“[P]resent proposals go too far,” he announced of risk retention rules in a speech this January. “We cannot allow disparities in homeownership. We must eliminate hardwired down payment and debt-to-income requirements.”

At SunTrust, Stevens will assume responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the business, including sales, production, fulfillment, and mortgage capital markets beginning July 16. He will report to Jerome Lienhard, CEO of the bank’s home lending unit.

He will be based in Washington, D.C. and keep offices in both Washington and Richmond, Va., where SunTrust Mortgage has a large corporate presence.