Branch Mortgage Manager, Chase Bank
Chasing the American dream is seldom easy but it’s people like Bernadette Catanzano that are helping make it a bit easier.
Now a veteran of nearly 15 years, Catanzano’s days with the bank began in January 1993 as a loan processor. Moving up to a supervisor position the following year, Catanzano wasted no time by climbing the Chase ladder as rapidly as she could and as of five years ago, has served as one of the two Branch Mortgage Managers in the borough. Catanzano and her associates specialize in purchase and refinance mortgages as well as home equity lines and loans. Chase has over 100 mortgage products to offer their customers, all tailored to meet any specific needs that they might have.
With the frigid temperatures now behind us, Catanzano’s team is digging its heels in for its busiest period. The spring market as she describes it is expected to generate the highest mortgage application volume of the entire year and is a surge Catanzano is usually well prepared for.
With the benefit of both experience and solid work ethic on her side, Catanzano is never one to procrastinate when it comes to preparing herself for battle.
“I know my goals in October,” says Catanzano, speaking of her annual efforts to meet the challenges of the year head on. She adds that her share of the Queens market is currently on target to exceed her $230 million goal for 2007, all with a profitable P&L to boot.
She attributes a lot of her success to her dedicated staff and Mary Frank, Chase’s regional vice president Catanzano insists is a key ingredient in her team’s recipe for success.
With more and more people buying homes they may not necessarily be able to afford in the end, one of Catanzano’s principle goals revolves around ensuring that this never occurs with her staff of trained loan officers overseeing every mortgage application with the utmost care and attention.
“As a first time homebuyer Bernadette helped make my mortgage application process very easy,” said one of her customers, Chime Lhamu. “Clear instructions, easy accessibility, prompt return of phone calls and to top it all off I got a good interest rate.”
Catanzano was educated in Long Island where she still lives with her husband and two girls, ages three and four. She received a marketing degree from Hofstra before earning her MBA at Adelphi University and has been a member of Chase’s prestigious Leader’s Club for four years.
The Leader’s Club is reserved for the top 10 percent of the bank’s national sales organization, with an annual all-expense paid trip awarded each year to those that qualify. This year’s destination is Puerto Rico.
She is currently overseeing plans for a second Douglaston team of loan officers she says will be up and running by the end of this year and says that there are still many roles that need to be filled (position requirements as well as other application details are available at chaseonline.com).
