Louis Chinappi has had a long career in all aspects of community banking, and currently oversees Massachusetts operations for Connecticut-based title insurer CATIC. Next year, he’s set to take over as chair of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association.
Title: Massachusetts State Manager, CATIC
Age: 50
Experience: 30 years
Q: Tell me a little about yourself. How did you get your start in the industry?
A: In college. I started as a teller. I worked at Stoneham Co-operative Bank for 15 years before entering title insurance. I worked in the accounting department, which turned into a servicing job. I ran their servicing for a while, and then eventually moved over into the origination side. When I left Stoneham in 1998, I was running their mortgage operations, as a production manager. It was a great job, a great company to work for.
Q: How did you transition from there into title insurance?
A: The person who hired me at First American recruited me … I never wanted to leave the bank, it was such a great environment. They started calling me at home, and my wife said, well, why don’t you go to the interview and then they’ll stop calling you. I went on the interview and ended up falling in love with the company…it was really their philosophy, as well as the opportunity to learn something new.
Q: You’re going to be the head of the Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association next year. When did you first become involved with the MMBA?
A: When I worked for Stoneham I was part of the Young Mortgage Banker Association, which no longer exists. Steve Sousa, who was then the head of the MMBA, got me involved with that. I got away from the association a little bit during my time at First America, but towards the end of my time there I was asked to join the board of directors [at the MMBA].
Q: You mentioned being involved in the now-defunct Young Mortgage Bankers association. Do you feel like there’s a need in the industry for a similar organization today?
A: There definitely is. Deb Sousa [executive director of the MMBA] and I have talked about this, and we’re hoping to create a Future Leaders program at some point to provide education, so that people are coming through the ranks and learning the industry. The Mass. Mortgage Bankers Foundation has done a terrific job. One of the things they’ve done is raise scholarship funds for many of the local community colleges, and they offer scholarships, and in addition those people have an opportunity to do an internship with a community bank. So it’s bringing new people into the industry and exposing them to our industry. With everything shrinking, you don’t have new people coming into the industry [in recent years], you have the same people staying in it – which is a great group of people, but you always want to be feeding new people in.
Q: What are your plans for the next year as you step into the leadership?
A: This is really going to be a year of implementation for compliance, with all the changes that are coming from the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau]. We’re making sure that our members are educated and that they have the tools they need to implement the changes that are coming. There are a lot of smaller banks that aren’t members, and what with all the changes that will be coming in the next few years, I think they’ll really need to join the association so they can stay on top of these changes. Because we do want to promote that community banks are providing mortgages. We don’t want to become a state where it’s only the large guys doing all the lending. I think Massachusetts is a great place because people do go to their community bank for a mortgage, and we want to make sure they can continue to do that.
Q: This year has been a bit of a roller coaster for the industry: a really strong spring and now a slow fall. What’s your outlook for next year?
A: I’m confident we’ll have a strong year in 2014. The winter’s going to be tough, they always are, but I think we’re going to see a good spring market. I think we’re going to see the upper end of housing have some movement, which is going to provide movement across the housing market, which will be good for everyone. It’s not going to go gangbusters, but I think we’ll see some movement, and increases in appraised values across most of the area.
Q: Are you worried at all that there will be a refi drought? It did seem like when the rates were down at 3 percent everybody and their mother had refinanced.
A: There’s always going to be people who need to refi. People need to provide educations for the children, or make improvements in their home. So there’s always going to be some. You’re not going to have a refi boom like we did. But I think we’ll see a big increase in home equity lines of credit, precisely because people won’t want to give up those low rates [on their mortgage]. But a home equity loan can only take you so far before it makes sense to refinance the whole loan. But that’s why we’re really hoping that the purchase end will pick up – it really helps so much more with the overall economy.
Q: I noticed you have a print of The Starry Night on your wall. Is art a hobby of yours?
A: I’m a potter and I like to run. My favorite distance is between six and eight miles. I ran cross country and track in high school, but it was really when my son was born that I was looking to change my lifestyle [and got back into running]. He’s 20 now.
Q: Obviously you kept up with it, that’s very impressive. But tell me more about the potting. How did you get into that?
A: I’ve been doing it for about three years. I got into it because my son went to St. John’s Prep, and they do a fundraiser called “Clay Till Midnight.” From 5 o’clock until midnight, people go in and create these bowls, and then in January they have a [soup-themed fundraiser] and you buy your bowl back. So I started helping out with that, and the potter who runs it saw I was interested and said why don’t you come by my studio [and take a class]. So every Monday night that’s what I do … It is challenging, and I find there’s ebbs and flows. Some days I’m really creating, and some days everything collapses. It’s a lot like life.
