Mike Weinbach’s gig as president of mortgage giant Mr. Cooper won’t be a walk in the park.
Weinbach, 50, joins the embattled company as it navigates the fallout of a massive data breach that compromised the personal information of 14.6 million customers, including names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and bank account numbers. Since the cyber attack last fall, Coppell-based Mr. Cooper has been hit with two class-action lawsuits accusing the company of failing to secure customer information.
But the company’s incoming president is no stranger to taking the helm at an organization in turmoil.
The 25-year finance veteran joined Wells Fargo in May 2020 to lead the bank’s restructured consumer lending division. As the CEO of consumer lending, Weinbach managed 40,000 team members and oversaw home lending, auto lending, credit cards, merchant services, student lending and personal lending for the bank.
At the time, the bank was in the middle of serving a hefty penalty imposed by the Federal Reserve for a fraud scandal in which the bank created fake accounts and forced some customers to take out unnecessary auto insurance. As a result, Wells Fargo was not restricted from growing its assets until it addressed internal issues.
But the trouble didn’t stop there.
The bank made headlines again in March 2022 when it was found that Wells Fargo rejected more than half of its Black applicants for home refinancing in 2020. The analysis found that other lenders rejected less than 30 percent of Black applicants.
Weinbach left Wells Fargo in September 2022. He was succeeded by Kleber Santos, who joined the bank as its head of diverse segments, representation and inclusion. Since Weinbach’s departure from Wells Fargo, he has consulted with MSW Advisors and McKinsey, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Weinbach spent 16 years at JP Morgan Chase; his last position at the bank was CEO of Chase home lending. He joined Chase in 2003 after a short stint in entrepreneurship. Fresh out of Harvard Business School, he founded U-inspire, which focused on employee motivation.
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As president of Mr. Cooper, Weinbach will earn an annual base salary of $750,000 and a $350,000 cash signing bonus, Housing Wire reported. He’ll also be eligible for incentive plans and will receive a one-time award of time-based restricted stock units with a grant date fair value of $2 million to be granted in 2024.
Meanwhile, Mr. Cooper remains very profitable. Deutsche Bank initiated its coverage of the firm this week with a buy recommendation because its average one-year price target represents a 20 percent increase.