Head of Home Lending
Wells Fargo’s Kristy Fercho says she enjoys “hard, nebulous problems,” but she has her work cut out for her as head of the bank’s home lending division.
Fercho joined the bank in August 2020, tasked with managing the mortgage division through a housing boom but also with fixing years of regulatory troubles.
The latter efforts were sidetracked in September, when regulators fined Wells $250 million and flagged continued issues with the home lending group’s loss mitigation practices.
There are “always going to be setbacks” in any transformation, Fercho said. But regulators’ feedback was an opportunity to redouble efforts and build on improvements made over the past year, she said.
“While I was disappointed, I really feel like we’re on the right track,” said Fercho, who previously led Flagstar Bank’s mortgage division and spent 15 years at Fannie Mae.
Since joining Wells Fargo, Fercho has reshuffled her leadership team to clarify who is accountable for what. More than 75% of the team is either new to the bank or in a new role, including a new position solely focused on customers’ experience.
“I wasn't deterred by the regulatory challenges,” Fercho said about joining Wells Fargo. “I figured there was a good foundation here given how successful Wells Fargo has been for years. And I just wanted to come in and help do my part to steer the ship in the right way.”
A big reason Fercho was attracted to the job is that Wells Fargo, as one of the nation’s largest home lenders, has an important role to play in helping fix the country’s racial disparities in homeownership. Fercho herself can also play a leading role as the incoming chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association, which for the first time in its history will have a Black person as its chair.
The MBA rolled out a new initiative in September aimed at tackling that homeownership issue, and Fercho said she will also focus on bringing more diversity into the mortgage industry.
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As for mortgage trends, Fercho said strong consumer demand should “continue to fuel a robust market for some time to come.”
Fercho has been “part of the chaos,” she said, first by refinancing her mortgage and then by scouting for a house in Charlotte, North Carolina, as she was relocating from Detroit. A real estate agent would send Fercho and her husband videos of houses they liked, but by the end of the day, the sellers were already looking for final offers after getting multiple bids.
“It was really hard being an out-of-town buyer in a market that was that frenzied,” she said.
