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FiveMinutes Frank J. Bisignano with COO for JPMorgan Chase & Co. and CEO of Mortgage Banking at Chase As CEO of mortgage banking for Chase, Frank Bisignano oversees one of the nation's largest lending and servicing businesses, originating more than $155 billion in home loans annually and servicing $1.1 trillion of mortgages. But Bisignano's responsibilities don't stop there. He is also COO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., tasked with optimizing technology and operations for all of the firm's businesses in over 60 countries. Is there any overlap in your dual roles—CEO of mortgage banking and COO of the entire firm? I approach the mortgage company as a journey we need to complete, and my operational responsibilities to the firm touch a lot of things in the mortgage company, but I think of my two roles as one job. I wear a JPMorgan Chase uniform, and that's the responsibility I have first and foremost—the responsibility to deliver the best possible results for our customers, our shareholders, and our employees. What are you seeing in terms of loan performance at Chase? I think it's important to recognize that we lead one of the largest foreclosure prevention efforts in the country. Our job is to keep people in their homes. We've helped over three-quarters of a million Americans avoid foreclosure through modifications and other foreclosure alternatives. And if you look at our delinquency numbers, they're down about 30 percent from when modifications really got started in 2010. Modifications were really a startup business for the industry, and of course, we needed to work out a lot of issues before we could get the type of performance we have today. I think when you look at all of this, we've seen housing bottom out and it's now beginning to trend upward with people buying homes again. We still have a long way to go, but I clearly see a better operating environment for people in housing right now. What is Chase doing to help military families and veterans? The best thing we can do to help those in the military is to give a servicemember who's returning an opportunity to work. We were the organization that created the 100,000 jobs mission—a collective effort by U.S. firms to hire 100,000 military veterans by 2020—and we're one of the founders of the Veterans Institute at Syracuse University, which was created to support the employment of military veterans. We also established an internal Office of Military and Veterans Affairs, and along with jobs, we're focused on homeownership and education. We also believe in rewarding those who have given the ultimate sacrifice, those who have been wounded at war. We've already awarded more than 250 homes to those deserving servicemembers, and we'll have given a total of 1,000 by 2016. We also have dedicated Homeownership Centers in nine different locations near military bases. I think we've done a lot in this area, but we've just started and it's going to be a lifetime pursuit for us. To those who come back, our job is to give back. Is the DOJ settlement having the impact it was intended to have? I feel the settlement has always been very good for everybody. I said it as one of the people at the table when we completed it, and I feel as strongly about it today. The settlement is allowing more affordability for people; it's allowing more people to stay in homes; it's created refinancing opportunities that did not exist before. So the answer is yes—it is one of the many things helping to move housing along from the bottom it was at. » VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 27