Spotlight Interview with Regina Lowrie and John Courson from MBA

Monday, 13 October 2008 16:52

Articles - Spotlight

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This month The Reverse Review had the wonderful opportunity to attend the MBA’s Reverse Mortgage Lending Conference in Miami, FL and to sit down with John Courson and Regina Lowrie.  The MBA has recently formed a Reverse Mortgage Task Force which will be lead by former MBA Chairwoman Regina Lowrie.  In the interview below John and Regina discuss their goals and aspirations for this task force.

Reverse Review: Talk to us about the Executive Reverse Mortgage Task Force.  What are its goals and objectives?

Regina Lowrie:  We’ve put together a pretty comprehensive agenda of a number of high level issues that are on the forefront.  One is educating the senior, and that’s where the MBA Home Loan Learning Center comes in, with a special section for reverse mortgages.  [We’ll be] talking to seniors, helping the understand, so they’re not going into a 20 minute or 1 hour counseling session totally blank, not understanding anything about a reverse mortgage, and unable to really ask any intelligent questions to make a good decision.

    Second, we’re working on developing a best practices and code of ethics for our loan originators and along with that, MBA is putting together a reverse loan officer accreditation program that we will be able to offer by the end of the year.  This will really help instill these best practices in the origination process.    Therefore our members that are looking at this as a new business opportunity can do it right and look out for the best interest of the senior.

John Courson:  With this task force, we will also have a focus on servicing.  We need to get a subset of servicers, because they have a different set of issues than counseling, appraisals and so on.  We can be a forum for them to get together because certainly as this product grows, the servicing is going to get more and more of a spotlight on it.

RR: Talk to us about the environment in today’s marketplace.  What does the future hold for us?

JC:  We’ve really got an opportunity.  We’ve got a chance, as my grand kids say, to have some “do-overs”.  There is an opportunity now to really look at the basic tenets and structure of the business.  The question is, is the industry ready.  Are they bold enough to take those actions that we need to take to bring in the accountability, bring in the transparency, and to really align the interest of borrowers with the interest of our for profit members.  That’s going to be one of my tasks in leading us through this opportunity and seizing the environment; to take that blank sheet of paper to re-write and restructure some of the basic tenets of our business.

RL:  Amidst this crisis, I’m still very very bullish on the housing industry.  Housing drives this economy.  We have a growing housing demand, both in tenant and owner occupied properties.  Once the credit markets settle, there are going to be huge opportunities for the housing markets to bounce back with resilience because housing has become more affordable now. 
RR: How do we educate people in the industry and outside of the industry?

RL:  That’s actually one of the major missions of this executive task force.  We want to raise awareness within MBA of the need to improve our marketing and communications, whether it’s through press releases, conferences, the MBA Home Loan Learning Center; we see that as a part of our mission.  One of the things we’ve discussed is putting together a marketing piece to dispel the myths of the reverse mortgage industry.  When we think about the growth in this industry, and some of the tremendous work that’s been done by NRMLA and others in this industry, we still have such a long way to go.

RR: How do you see the MBA’s role with NRMLA in the reverse mortgage industry:

JC:  We see it as complimentary.  Frankly, they’ve done a very good job.  Obviously, they’ve done a yeoman’s duty in working with the people that are out there originating loans.  Peter Bell and I have known each other for 20 years.  They’ve done a very good job of that.  In our case, the task force is there to work with the CEOs and the people who are running the enterprises.  We have corporate members at the senior executive level and they’re looking for us to play this role.  So, I think it’s absolutely a perfect compliment.  Between the two, we’re all working for the same goal.  The companies that belong to NRMLA are also members of the MBA.  So, I think our members are looking for value on both sides of the equation. 

RL:  As things come up in Washington, on the hill, if NRMLA and the MBA can walk up on the hill together, in lockstep, how powerful will that be for the industry?  So, John is right.  It is a compliment to what NRMLA does we’re looking for ways in which we can work together in the industry.

about John Courson & Regina Lowrie...

    John Courson is COO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and will become the Association’s President on January 1, 2009. Courson has been involved in the mortgage industry for more than 40 years and served as Chairman of MBA in 2003. From 2004 to 2008, Courson served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the California Housing Finance Agency, a position for which he was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Regina Lowrie is President and CEO of Vision Mortgage Capital, LLC, Operating Subsidiary of American Home Bank N.A. Vision Mortgage Capital was formed by Regina Lowrie in June 2007 to be a premier mortgage banker dedicated to meeting the emerging housing needs of – first time homebuyers, move-up buyers, immigrants, senior citizens and existing homeowners – “housing the future.”

Lowrie is also President & CEO of RML Investments Inc. – a company that currently serves the real estate financial services industry in many capacities to include consultative services to mortgage bankers and an advocate for fighting mortgage fraud. She is also former chairwoman of the national Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The MBA is the only national organization dedicated to meeting the professional needs and interests of companies who have a vested interest in the mortgage industry.