Wells Fargo & Co., Des Moines, Iowa, announced Kristy Fercho will join the company at the beginning of August as head of Wells Fargo Home Lending. She will replace Michael DeVito, who has announced plans to retire later this summer after more than 23 years with Wells Fargo.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced yesterday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will extend several loan origination flexibilities until August 31 to ensure continued support for borrowers during the COVID-19 national emergency.

Craig Riddell is Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer with LoanLogics, Trevose, Pa. He is responsible for establishing and developing ongoing relationships with LoanLogics' largest enterprise clientele, as well as leading the company’s Sales, Marketing and Account Management functions.

(One of a continuing series of profiles of participants in the MBA Education Path to Diversity (P2D) Scholarship Program, which enables employees from diverse backgrounds to advance their professional growth and career development.)

As longtime industry participants, we at Housing Finance Strategies contend that the pandemic has created a revolutionary opportunity that we must seize and leverage so that the mortgage business can emerge with higher quality prospective products funded through a drastically reduced cost structure.

Adherence to vendor management best practices needs to remain top of mind for lenders even when accelerating their digital mortgage tech selection and deployment process. Compliance with regulatory requirements and proper risk mitigation are not steps to be overlooked.

This week in Washington, ongoing COVID-19 relief discussions have reached the commercial real estate borrowing community and their financiers in earnest.

Hodges Ward Elliott, Atlanta, represented Sunstone Hotel Investors when it sold the 622-room Renaissance Harborplace hotel in Baltimore for $80 million.