Grimsby, Linconshire -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/29/2017 --The Collingwood Group, a Washington, DC-based advisory firm led by the former head of FHA, and partners who have held senior leadership positions in HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, focused on housing policy and regulation, announced yesterday that Justin Burch will join the company as Managing Director and Head of the Federal Housing Practice.

As the firm's Federal Housing Practice leader, Mr. Burch will manage the delivery of business advisory services to financial services clients that require resolution of federal business and regulatory issues associated with federal housing programs, or that seek insight into the federal regulatory environment. Leveraging his experience, Mr. Burch and his team will also assist Collingwood clients that seek to promote policy positions, initiate substantive dialogue, and establish critical working relationships in Washington, DC, and across the industry.

Mr. Burch's most recent experience was leading FHA's quality assurance and counterparty risk management activities, including compliance evaluation of origination, underwriting, and servicing practices, lender examinations, and management of FHA's Credit Watch Initiative. He was a key stakeholder in the development and implementation of FHA's Loan Quality Assessment Methodology (the "Defect Taxonomy"), which was recently deployed with the introduction of the new FHA Loan Review System.

Mr. Burch also served as a critical voice for FHA, presenting at numerous industry events and interacting with the lending community. He was also active in broader federal housing policy discussions as a member of the Joint Federal Housing Agency working group composed of leadership from the CFPB, Ginnie Mae, FHFA, FHA, the VA Loan Guaranty Service, and Rural Development. Prior to this role, Mr. Burch worked as a senior risk analyst for Ginnie Mae where he was responsible for issuer performance evaluation and monitoring of a $520 billion portfolio of mortgage-backed securities, and was a principal architect behind the development of the Ginnie Mae HMBS program, enabling reverse mortgage lenders the opportunity to securitize FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs).

"Justin's extensive experience as an integral part of FHA and Ginnie Mae, coupled with his unique insight and understanding of the operations and risk management and compliance strategy of both organizations, will offer our clients a unique perspective on many of the most pressing business issues in housing finance today," said Brian O'Reilly, President of The Collingwood Group.

"I am excited to join such a progressive organization. The partnership between Collingwood and Situs presents a unique platform to explore growth opportunities in the commercial and residential real estate market. I look forward to joining the team," said Mr. Burch.

About The Collingwood Group
The Collingwood Group, a Situs company, provides business advisory services and business development opportunities combined with access to decision makers, financial sponsors, corporate boards, and senior financial services industry executives.

The firm's core focus is set on helping companies and investors in the financial services industry drive growth, build their businesses, and accelerate value creation through the identification and exploitation of differentiated opportunities in the financial services industry.

About Situs
Situs is the premier global provider of strategic business and technology solutions for the real estate finance industries, trusted to evaluate, optimize, and manage critical assets and securities, from commercial and residential real estate, to small- and medium-enterprise and consumer lending. Since 1985, Situs has set the standard in financial services for service, quality and execution. Situs has offices across the US and Europe and has been involved in more than $1 trillion of real estate debt and equity deals.

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