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He is Jack M. Guttentag, now Professor
of Finance Emeritus, formerly Jacob Safra Professor of International Banking,
at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier he was Chief
of the Domestic Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, on
the senior staff of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and managing editor
of both the Journal of Finance (1974-77) and the Housing Finance Review (1983-89).
Professor Guttentag has been a student
of the home loan market for many years, and his bibliography of scholarly articles,
books and monographs is large and diverse. He has also been an active practitioner,
serving as a consultant to many government agencies and private financial institutions,
including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, USAID, Freddie Mac,
Citicorp, Dominion Bancshares, the World Bank, J.P. Morgan Securities, the New
Zealand Bankers Association, and many others. In addition, he has been a director
of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, Federal Home Loan Bank of
Pittsburgh, Guild Mortgage Investments, and First Federal Savings and Loan Association
of Rochester.
Throughout his career, Professor
Guttentag has been concerned with the difficulties faced by consumers in the
home loan market. In 1985 he joined with a colleague at Wharton to found GHR
Systems, Inc. which has developed a nationwide electronic network that lenders
can use to deliver complex mortgage information quickly to loan-officer employees,
to mortgage brokers, and to consumers using the internet. The company also provides
easy-to-use tools that enable loan officers to act as consultants to borrowers
during the origination process, while speeding up the process. Some clients
of GHR Systems are Washington Mutual, Charter One Mortgage, Homecomings Financial,
Radian Guaranty, Cendant Mortgage and others.
In 1997 Professor Guttentag
began to phase out his teaching at Wharton in order to focus his efforts more
fully toward helping consumers navigate the home loan market effectively. He
began a weekly column on mortgages that is nationally syndicated, and began
the development of his web site, www.mtgprofessor.com.
The major purpose of both is to help consumers make better decisions.
In 2000, Professor Guttentag in collaboration
with several mortgage brokers developed Upfront Mortgage Brokers (UMBs). Brokers
who agree to do business in accordance with UMB principles, and who display
these principles prominently on their web sites, are listed on his site for
easy access by consumers.
In 2006, Guttentag teamed up with Amerisave, an Upfront Mortgage Lender, to provide disclosure of the lender's wholesale mortgage prices and its markup to borrowers who access Amerisave through www.mtgprofessor.com. Guttentag monitors the site and guarantees the markup for consumers. |
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