Mortgage servicers: the industry's unsung heroes.

During any challenging time or crisis, there are always unsung heroes toiling behind the scenes who, many times unknowingly, are making a huge difference in the outcome of the situation. While rarely seen or heard from, these dedicated individuals contribute in ways that far exceed the recognition they receive.

Today, as our industry goes through these unparalleled times, loan servicers truly are unsung heroes. Every day they are on the frontlines of the efforts to help America's troubled homeowners stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure whenever possible.

These unsung heroes are making a measurable and impressive impact.

The HOPE NOW Alliance, Washington, D.C., reported in July that mortgage servicers have helped an estimated 1.7 million homeowners stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure since July 2007. These nearly 1.7 million prime and subprime loan workouts include approximately 1 million repayment plans and 700,000 loan modifications.

In fact, HOPE NOW is estimating that during the second quarter of 2008, mortgage servicers will have helped about 519,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure--a record that includes the largest number of workouts in any quarter since HOPE NOW began in July 2007. These metrics clearly demonstrate that the efforts of all those involved in mortgage servicing are paying major dividends.

As more and more troubled borrowers continue to turn to their mortgage servicers for help, we at CampusMBA have in turn rallied to support the servicing community. As their ranks have swelled with redeployed staff, we have created a suite of offerings to reduce the learning curve of those new to the discipline. These offerings also are designed to increase the effectiveness of the more experienced people--all with the goal of increasing servicing organizations' capacity to help more of America's troubled homeowners.

In June, CampusMBA announced an ambitious training partnership with Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. (RMIC), Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Old Republic International Corporation, which protects lenders across the country from losses due to defaults on first mortgages for single-family residential properties. The initiative was part of CampusMBA's rapid response enterprise training solutions, which provide companies such as RMIC with comprehensive, specialized training to help prepare staff to best meet their organization's business goals.

In keeping with our rapid response mission, we quickly created a specialized loss-mitigation course for RMIC and began delivering it within 45 days of the project start date to the staff of RMIC's customer-companies that are in the loan servicing business. Some of those companies include Wachovia Corporation, Charlotte, North Carolina; Sun Trust Mortgage Inc., Richmond, Virginia; BB&T Corporation. Winston-Salem. North Carolina; First Horizon Home Loan Corporation, Irving, Texas; and Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation, Ocala, Florida.

This loss-mitigation course, which is now being offered to industry professionals on an open-enrollment basis, is a boot camp-style workshop designed for servicing managers, counselors and loan servicing professionals who are responsible for performing and monitoring loss-mitigation workouts.

The workshop provides critical insights on loss-mitigation issues, including common reasons for default, investor and insurer loss-mitigation requirements and workout options. Five hands-on exercises, including the designing of a loss-mitigation workout plan, ensure that professionals can immediately apply these loss-mitigation skills to their job function.

Needless to say, when RMIC expressed this critical business need to CampusMBA, we were delighted to have the opportunity to deliver high-caliber, hands-on loss-mitigation training to the staff of RMIC's roster of customer servicing companies. And we're planning to do the same for more organizations of all sizes across the nation.

Our first public loss-mitigation class, which took place in June and was held at Santa Ana, California-based First American Corporation's campus in Westlake, Texas, was a great success. Seats filled up rapidly, and it was obvious that servicing professionals were eager to brush up on loss-mitigation techniques that would allow them to better serve troubled borrowers.

CampusMBA will host its next public loss-mitigation course in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11. If you happen to be a servicing professional, I hope to see you and your colleagues there. It's a great course, and I've been receiving tremendous feedback from our attendees. Also, don't forget that participants will receive two points toward the CMB (Certified Mortgage Banker) and CMS (Certified Mortgage Servicer) designations for attending this course.

So as you can see, CampusMBA is rapidly responding to the market needs that mortgage industry businesses are currently facing. Our loss-mitigation workshop and entire enterprise training line are just a few examples of how we can help companies across the mortgage banking industry accelerate their business and produce real, bottom-line results.

We are proud to help the unsung heroes in this battle do what they do best--help America's troubled borrowers stay in their homes and avoid foreclosure whenever possible. So the next time you see any of your servicing colleagues, make sure to acknowledge the extremely valuable work they are doing in these difficult circumstances.

For information on CampusMBA's loss-mitigation workshop and enterprise training, visit www.campusmba.org or call (800) 348-8653.

John Golden is senior vice president of education, CampusMBA, for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) in Washington, D.C. He leads CampusMBA, the education division of MBA, and is responsible for the development, growth and strategic vision for CampusMBA and its education programs. He can be reached at jgoden@mortgagebankers.org.