Joseph Abbruzzese Email & Phone Number

After leaving Citi (Laid off-position eliminated), I had the privilege of taking some time off to be a caregiver for ailing family members. I am now actively exploring opportunities to jump back into a leadership role. I am prepared to relocate.

I was a caregiver for ailing family members.

New York, New York, Us

I led 6 real estate lending operations units with 100 employees across multiple locations. Overseeing mortgage insurance resolution, operations control, investor document fulfillment, missing documents, reporting and analytics, and project management, I led team efforts to optimize internal processes and offer excellent customer service. During my tenure, I built new mission-critical functions, formalized others, and strengthened overall operations. OUTCOMES:▶ Captured $2B in loss avoidance and recoveries by overhauling the mortgage insurance rescission, remedy, and claims processes. ▶ Spearheaded industry’s first B2B electronic document process that increased productivity 1000%.▶ Launched centralized document package creation unit and new missing documents unit, avoiding $300M in unnecessary losses and locating 80% of missing documents. ▶ Started new repurchase operations control group to mitigate risk and improve compliance. ▶ Played key role in the effort to negotiate a global settlement with GSEs, releasing bank from various repurchase risks.

New York, New York, Us

Expanding and leading the repurchase operations department was an exciting challenge, especially due to the explosive growth of repurchase requests from GSEs —from 300 per month to up to 4K. In this role, I developed our operations as we concurrently fielded 1200% more requests. This entailed hiring and onboarding 178 new team members (including 50+ underwriters) using a temp-to-hire model. I also led the development and reengineering of multiple internal processes, controls, and tools that were integral to our success. OUTCOMES:▶ Recovered $400M and saved $250M in credit losses. ▶ Recouped $130M in claims payments with a new home equity insurance claim process.▶ Achieved 70% appeal success rate for government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) and private investor requests. ▶ Created new referral validation function that reduced invalid claims and referrals 60%.

New York, New York, Us

After 5 years ensuring that the default management team achieved all its goals and was running smoothly, I was invited to create the collections policy and strategy group. I rebuilt all collection and default policies for multiple lending units and made sure these aligned with global standards. OUTCOMES:▶ Improved compliance, efficiency, and productivity in 1 year. ▶ Designed metrics that improved consistency and transparency.

New York, New York, Us

Due to my performance during the post-acquisition integration of European American Bank, I was retained as a member of the consumer lending group’s executive team. At the time, Citi’s home equity division was only 12 months old, so I was charged with building and leading all collections and default management operations for a $40B portfolio. I doubled the size of the staff from 75 to 150, leading teams in 2 locations. I developed robust policies, systems, and workflows to consistency achieve aggressive delinquency and loss-reduction goals. I also served as the key department contact for all internal and regulatory audits. OUTCOMES:▶ Lowered unit costs 22%, credit losses $65M under budget, and 30-day delinquency under 70 basis points.▶ Crafted new consumer behavior-scoring system that improved department performance. ▶ Earned top ranking in employee satisfaction surveys for multiple years.

As an executive leader within this bank, I oversaw consumer collections for a $5B portfolio that encompassed auto, RV, mortgage, home equity, revolving credit, and installment loans. With 125 team members, I led the entire scope of collections, recovery, and default operations prior to Citi’s acquiring the bank in 2001. During my tenure, I maintained annual losses at $18M, which was below the bank’s cumulative loss budget and performed credit and servicing quality evaluations for portfolio-acquisition due diligence.