WaMu Top Mortgage Exec Out

WaMu, one of the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders, announced the retirement of seven-year employee Craig S. Davis, president of the Home Loans and Insurance Services Group. The decision was announced along with a company realignment done to unify the business and focus on its primary customer groups.

The retirement of Davis, who last year earned approximately $2.1 million (excluding options), follows WaMu’s disclosure last month that problems in hedging the rising rate environment led to third quarter losses in the sale of home mortgages.

Whether Davis’s retirement was related to the un-quantified third quarter losses, company spokesman Alan Gulick said in a phone interview that the executive’s decision came voluntarily after 25 years in the financial business.

“Craig retired with the consent of the company … he’s supportive of the realignment and he’s going to serve in an advisory role until the end of the year,” the spokesman said.

The Seattle-based banking behemoth, which reported $108.16 billion in home loan production for the second quarter this year, named Deanna Oppenheimer to assume Davis’s responsibilities. The 18-year veteran will keep her current title as president of the banking and financial services division and will manage the thrift’s consumer businesses, including retail banking, insurance, home loan and retail brokerage businesses.

The 45-year-old successor has directed the company’s retail banking expansion from a handful of stores in the Pacific Northwest to a national franchise with 1,500 retail banking stores in top metropolitan areas. Under her management, WaMu’s base of retail checking accounts went from 1.8 million to 7.6 million in an 18-month period, which ended in June, the company said.