HomeStreet Hires Large Block of Former MetLife Employees

HomeStreet Inc. in Seattle has hired more than 160 former MetLife Inc. mortgage professionals across three Pacific Northwest states.

The new hires are a "substantial majority" of the loan production personnel based in Washington, Oregon and Idaho that had been employed by MetLife Home Loans, the $2.3 billion-asset HomeStreet said Tuesday in a news release. The bank also said that it was bringing on board a "significant number" of mortgage loan processing staffers.

The group includes Rose Marie David, the former Pacific Northwest regional sales leader; Anthony Grasst, the former regional builder division manager; and Natalie Overturf and Jeff Schaller, former district sales leaders, in addition to branch managers, mortgage consultants and production support staff. The workers will join HomeStreet over the next several weeks and will become part of the bank's regional mortgage origination operations.

MetLife announced in January that it had shut down its mortgage origination business and let go most of its 4,300 workers after the insurance giant could not find a buyer for the unit.

Provident Financial Holdings Inc. in Riverside, Calif., said last week that it had hired 40 former MetLife employees to run three new retail mortgage loan production offices in Northern California.