Two banks add to their ranks
The thin gruel of recent economic news found some meat and potatoes recently.
A pair of multistate banks that are also major regional finance forces for business and consumers ”“ Bank of America and TD Bank ”“ independently have announced plans to expand their work forces, with TD charging hard into the perceived wasteland of mortgages and Bank of America teaming with Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith in the arena of wealth management.
TD recently announced it will hire 100 residential mortgage experts to work its pipeline of 1,250 East Coast banks, 201 of which are in New York state. The hires are expected to be completed in six to eight months. No breakdown by state was available.
“We have been fortunate to have grown our mortgage loan originations by 47 percent over the past couple years, even during the grip of the recession,” said Mike Copley, retail lending executive vice president.
The move coincides with the July 11 rollout of TD”™s comprehensive “first-time homebuyer kit,” developed “to educate first-time home buyers and guide them through every step on the path to making a house a home,” the bank reports.
In the same arena, TD also hired Malcolm Hollensteiner, who will direct the bank”™s national residential mortgage sales from northern Virginia. His department”™s business more than doubled over the past two years, according to the bank. He will additionally be tasked with managing the consumer and credit card sales teams.
Since 2009, Hollensteiner was the mid-Atlantic regional manager for PNC Mortgage, the sixth-largest bank (by deposits) in the U.S. He is a graduate of the Mortgage Bankers Association”™s School of Mortgage Banking and from Harvard University.
At Bank of America, some 70 financial advisers will soon call the New York metropolitan region home, including a pair in Westchester County.
“As part of its overall commitment to enhance the solutions and guidance offered to preferred customers, Bank of America announced the hiring of 70 Merrill Edge Financial Solutions Advisors (FSA) who will be added to select banking centers in the Metro-New York region by the end of this month,” the bank said in a statement. “This includes two in Westchester.”
Bank of America dates to the 18th century as the Massachusetts Bank, with John Hancock signing the charter and today has its marquee above what it counts as “several thousand” bank branches around the world.