Keenan Raverty

Vice president, Bell Mortgage

St. Paul native Keenan Raverty, 42, started his career as a banker and transitioned into mortgage banking. He's a vice president at Bell Mortgage, Minnesota's oldest and largest privately owned mortgage-banking company. He's also the new president/chairman of the board of the Minnesota Mortgage Association (MMA), a trade group representing mortgage professionals statewide. Raverty says the group encourages education and professionalism in the industry while its members work to connect Minnesota consumers with appropriate and affordable mortgage loans.

Raverty is currently chairman of the MMA Government Affairs Committee and a member of the MMA board of governors. He's also a past president and board chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Minnesota and the Mortgage Association of Minnesota.

Q: What's your primary role at Bell Mortgage?

A: Helping consumers write mortgages and managing certain areas of our production. Bell has traditionally had a very strong market share in Minnesota, and especially in the west metro, but has not had as strong of a market share in the east metro. I'm more of a St. Paul guy, and that's where my connections and roots are, so I joined Bell with the hope of growing our east metro/St. Paul-area production.

Q: What issues face the mortgage industry?

A: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — two large government-sponsored enterprises that backed the majority of the loans throughout our country — failed. They're insolvent and in government receivership. There's a lot of discussion about what's the future of the secondary mortgage market, which allows banks to sell mortgages. Where do loans ultimately get placed going forward?

Q: What are other issues from the crisis?

A: Landmark legislation passed called the Dodd-Frank Act. As part of that, there were required regulatory and compliance steps with staged implementation for the mortgage industry. By far the largest and most significant part of that has mandatory compliance by January 2014, so our members are really scrambling.

Q: Do you have concerns about Dodd-Frank?

A: As an association and industry, I think ­consumers are best helped when they have lots of options for financing. The Dodd-Frank regulation was really written without regard to how big or small an organization is. Companies may need to hire a full-time compliance officer and engage additional accounting practices. We fear that it's at least possible that some of the smaller ­providers are going to decide to get out of the mortgage business, which ultimately, could mean fewer choices for consumers.

Liz Wolf is an Eagan-based freelance writer. She can be reached at wolfliz99@aol.com.