During the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association’s policy conference in Washington, its Board of Directors unanimously elected Cheryl MacNally of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and John Nixon of Bank of America as its new Co-chairs.
Joining MacNally and Nixon on the trade association’s Executive Committee will be Robert Sivori of MetLife Bank and Mark Browning of HomeChex as Vice-chairs, George Lopez of James B. Nutter & Co. as Treasurer and Diane Coats of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage as Secretary.
“We feel privileged to have this depth of executive leadership within our organization,” says NRMLA President Peter Bell. “Cheryl and John have witnessed the financial product’s evolution and bring us both a clear understanding of how we got here and a creative vision of where we can go.”
MacNally has over 20 years of banking experience and services as Vice President – National Sales Manager Senior Products Group for Wells Fargo.
“It is truly an honor to serve such a dedicated group of industry professionals who are passionate about serving seniors, an underserved segment of our population,” MacNally says. “We have an opportunity to not only educate on the true benefit of our program, but also clarify the misconceptions about the program. We also have the opportunity to continue collaborating with HUD to ensure the sustainability of the HECM program and make sure it remains a viable tool for retirement planning in the future.”
Nixon has been in the mortgage industry since 1976 and currently serves as Reverse Mortgage Sales Support and Sales Integration Executive at Bank of America. Previously he was Vice President and Chief Operations Officer for Reverse Mortgage of America and built it into the third-largest reverse mortgage lender in the nation. He joined Bank of America in 2007 when it acquired his former firm.
“The next year and a half is pivotal in the industry,” Nixon says. He would like the focus to be HECM re-engineering to ensure long-term viability of the program, working with HUD to resolve the tax and insurance default issue and working with regulators to tighten control of improper cross-selling. “The key objective of NRMLA in the coming year will be to do a much better job in telling the great story about the life-changing benefits of the HECM product to the majority of our seniors.”
MacNally and Nixon served as the NRMLA board co-chairs for the past three years. In addition, they have been participating in a working group organized by HUD that also includes Craig Corn of MetLife Bank and Jeff Lewis of Generation Mortgage working in concert with HUD Director, Portfolio Analysis, Colin Cushman and under Deputy Assistant Secretary Vicki Bott to examine variations on the current HECM product.
Former NRMLA chairman Joe DeMarkey of MetLife Bank and Bart Johnson of Life Stages Financial will serve as chairmen emeritus said NRMLA.
