MetLife Exits Reverse Mortgage Business

MetLife Inc., New York, N.Y. (NYSE: MET), is exiting the reverse mortgage business. Nationstar Mortgage LLC will purchase MetLife Bank’s reverse mortgage servicing portfolio. The transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. MetLife Bank will no longer accept new reverse mortgage loan applications and registrations.

MetLife’s entire retail banking business, including mortgages, represented under 2% of MetLife’s 2011 operating earnings. Given MetLife’s focus as a global insurance and employee benefits leader, the company decided in 2011 that a bank holding company structure was no longer appropriate. Since that time, MetLife has reached agreements to sell MetLife Bank’s deposit business to GE Capital and to sell the bank’s warehouse finance business to EverBank. In addition, the bank has ceased taking forward mortgage applications.

In other industry news:

Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America launched the optional Income Focus rider on Allianz Vision, Allianz Vision New York and Allianz Connections variable annuities. The optional rider offers payment percentage increases of 1% every year the contract experiences positive performance, no matter the size of the increase. There is no limit on the number of income increases, up to age 91, whether the contract holder takes income today or in the future.

The Income Focus rider provides income that is not driven by how high the contract value grows, but by how many times it grows. There are no guaranteed annual increases in accumulation, so with Income Focus, if you select at issue and make no additional purchase payments, you only need to keep track of two numbers – the amount put in and the payment percentage.

The current annual cost of the Income Focus rider is 1.3% calculated on the purchase payments adjusted for withdrawals for both single and joint life payout, and is subject to change on each quarterly anniversary, but will never be less than the minimum charge of 0.5% or exceed the maximum of 2.75% for single or 2.95% for joint.

Cathay Conning Asset Management, Hartford, Conn., a provider of asset management solutions to institutional and insurance investors in the Asia Pacific region, appointed Mark Konyn as CEO. Konyn will lead the strategic expansion of CCAM. 

Konyn, who has been working and living in Asia for the past 22 years, will be based in Hong Kong. He joins CCAM from RCM, a subsidiary of Allianz Global Investors, where he held a number of leadership positions over 15 years. He was most recently CEO for Asia Pacific with responsibility for developing the group’s regional business.

Prior to joining RCM, Konyn was head of Asia Regional Institutional Business with Fidelity Investments Hong Kong, and represented Asia business interests in the Middle East. He moved to Hong Kong in 1989, and served as director of Business Planning and Investment with Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd. where he developed the strategic expansion plans for Asia. He thereafter was named director and head of Marketing for Indosuez Asia Investment Management Ltd., where he marketed investment management services globally. Konyn started his career in London as a senior quantitative investment analyst with Prudential Portfolio Managers Ltd.