The board of directors of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) has announced the election of Cheryl MacNally of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and John Nixon of Bank of America as the association's new co-chairs. The duo succeeds Joseph DeMarkey of MetLife Bank and Bart Johnson of Life Stages Financial, who remain on the board as chairmen emeritus.
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 & Company 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,” said 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 more than 20 years of banking experience and has been at Wells Fargo since 1993, where she now serves as vice president—national sales manager senior products group. Wells Fargo has been the leading retail originator of reverse mortgages since 2006.
“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 said. “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, reverse mortgage sales support and sales integration executive for Bank of America, has been in the mortgage industry since 1976. 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 said. 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, this year they have been participating in a working group organized by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (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.
In addition to DeMarkey and Johnson, former chairs during NRMLA’s 14-year history include Jeffrey Taylor (Reverse Market Insight), Sarah Hulbert (Seattle Mortgage Company), James Mahoney, Patrick McEnerney (Deutsche Bank) and Joe Morris (Generation Mortgage Company). All continue to serve as emeritus members of the current board.
For more information, visit www.nrmla.org.
