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Mortgage News Daily has learned that John Courson, President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, will announce his resignation later today. Courson is expected to be replaced by the recently resigned FHA Commissioner David Stevens.

UPDATED AT 2PM ON 3/15/2011

David H. Stevens who announced his intention to leave his position as Assistant Secretary for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration  (FHA) earlier this month will become the new President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).  Stevens will replace John A. Courson who announced his resignation today.  Courson will be leaving MBA on June 1 after serving as its head since January, 2009.  Courson joined the Association as its Chief Operating Officer in August 2008  and served as its Chairman in 2003. 

MBA is the national association representing the real estate finance industry.  It will be interesting to see how Steven's appointment as its head will mesh with the Obama Administration's rule on revolving door appointments.  It states that, upon leaving government service, former Obama Administration appointees are prohibited from lobbying any covered official in the entire Executive branch for as long as President Obama is in office.  

Stevens has headed FHA for almost two years and led the agency through much of the mortgage crisis, overseeing the agencies attempts to improve its risk management and increase its capital reserves.  During his tenure FHA moved from a minor player in the single-family mortgage market to became the source of over 25 percent of domestic mortgages.  Before joining the Obama Administration Stevens served at the World Bank, Freddie Mac, and Wells Fargo Bank and more recently was President and Chief Operating Officer of Long and Foster Companies, the nation's largest, privately-held real estate firm.

"John Courson has led MBA through the most turbulent times that this industry, and the association, has ever seen," said MBA's Chairman Michael D. Berman, CMB.  "John inherited an association facing serious financial challenges precipitated by the meltdown in the mortgage market and MBA's decision to purchase its own headquarters building in the year leading up to the Great Recession.  He was compelled from the outset to make difficult financial decisions, both to bring MBA's budget under control and to extricate MBA from the building, but he leaves MBA with a budget in the black and having executed the sale of the building while maintaining MBA's commitment to it members.  

"David Stevens is uniquely qualified to lead the association in its next chapter," said Berman.  "Most recently he has had a tremendous impact at FHA, as that program faced its own unprecedented challenges.  He also brings a wealth of industry experience in mortgage lending that will help him further build MBA's position as the industry's leading voice in advocacy, communications, education and research."

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