Genworth has announced the appointment of Tim Rooney as its new country manager for Mortgage Insurance in Germany.
Rooney (pictured) joins Genworth with immediate effect and will be based in its office in Neu-Isenberg near Frankfurt where he will report to Simon Crone, vice-president, Commercial – Mortgage Insurance.
He is a well known industry figure and most recently ran his own consultancy business focused upon acquiring distressed consumer finance assets on behalf of private equity and hedge fund, capital providers.
Prior to this Rooney was a global executive committee member at Deutsche Bank PBC where he was responsible for strategic direction and financial performance of lending businesses from application through to collections and default management.
He has also held leadership roles with GE (where he was european head of mortgages), Citibank and Abbey National.
Angel Mas, president – Mortgage Insurance Europe at Genworth, said: “Genworth sees Germany’s position as the largest economy in Europe, coupled with lower than average levels of owner-occupation – 46% compared to 70-80% in the UK – and the fact its home-owning citizens tend to be on average older than in most other countries, as an attractive opportunity for mortgage insurance.
“Germany has experienced 30 years of stagnant house prices and buying a property has become a much more attractive proposition that banks will need to respond to with new high LTV loans. Genworth also see a regulatory incentive in Germany for private building societies and mortgage-lending insurance companies.
“Over the last few months we have evolved our model in Germany and have brought in a dedicated mortgage insurance team who will be charged with developing our presence in this exciting market. We are very pleased to have Tim on board leading our operation and have assembled a range of top talent and deep market experience in order to support him.
“Tim brings with him a range of sought after skills and experience which make him ideally suited to deliver on our ambitions and plans in Germany. We are seeing some sizeable shifts in the German mortgage market and a renewed desire and focus on home ownership which will need to be met with high LTV products.
“With a particularly focused plan on the most attractive segments we see opportunities to help increase home ownership for young first-time buyers and offer new solutions for financial institutions to help meet this growing need in a sustainable way.
“Genworth is therefore extremely optimistic about our prospects in this major market and believe with our in-market commercial and operations team solely focused on mortgage insurance, we are very well-positioned for future growth.”
Rooney added: “This is the start of the next phase of Genworth’s work in Germany and we now have an extremely strong team that is purely focused on the mortgage insurance opportunities that exist here. I am very pleased to be heading up the operation and given the fact we are very close to our customers with such a level of expertise I believe we are in the perfect position to take the proposition forward.
“I’ve joined Genworth in Germany at a time when the mortgage market is rapidly changing and the traditional structures of home ownership are developing which means there is likely to be a considerable call for mortgage insurance in the years ahead. It is now our job, backed by the full Mortgage Insurance – Europe team, to ensure we are in the right place to benefit from this changing marketplace.”
