Movement Mortgage names Steve Smith president and CFO

Movement Mortgage has named Steve Smith, a mortgage veteran who most recently served as Movement’s executive advisor, as its new president and chief financial officer. 

Smith will lead teams across sales, operations, finance, servicing and corporate functions at the South Carolina-based mortgage lender that originated about $16 billion in mortgage loans from January to September, up 2.7% compared to the same period last year, according to Inside Mortgage Finance (IMF). 

The announcement was made Wednesday.

Movement CEO Casey Crawford, a former pro football player who founded the distributed retail nonbank in 2008, said in a statement that Smith has a “track record of leading companies through aggressive growth and transformation.” Meanwhile, Smith said Movement is “uniquely positioned to win big in the coming years.” 

Smith previously served as president and CFO of Stearns Lending, CFO of Caliber Home Loans, executive for core servicing and centralized sales for Bank of America and CFO of consumer markets for Countrywide. 

Michael Brennan was previously listed as the company’s president but is now listed as the national director of partner sales, according to the company’s website. He joined Movement in March 2015 to lead the Northeast region, was promoted to chief performance officer in 2020 and president in 2021.

Movement had 2,152 sponsored mortgage loan officers and 436 active branches as of Wednesday, per the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS). In July, the lender and rival loanDepot agreed to end a one-year dispute over the poaching of employees. But it still has an ongoing litigation with competitor Summit Funding.