New CEO says he’s up to tackling new chapter
Home Capital Group Inc. has chosen a mortgage industry veteran with a technology background as its new full-time president and chief executive, tasking Yousry Bissada with getting the beleaguered Toronto-based company “running on all cylinders” again.
Even after last month’s major investment by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway — which made the renowned investor Home Capital’s largest shareholder while staunching the decline in deposit balances at its subsidiary — the 57-year-old former banking executive will face a daunting task when he starts on Aug. 3.
That includes determining how to begin growing the company’s mortgage book again, even as Home Capital and other non-prime lenders are poised to take a hit from proposed regulations that would tighten lending standards for uninsured mortgages.
Bissada, however, said he is undeterred by the hurdles.
“I’ve never been afraid of transforming and taking something from one point until the other,” he told the Financial Post Wednesday. “I felt the nucleus of this company, as many people in the mortgage industry do, is really good. From the day the job was available I was very interested and put up my hand, and all the way along through the process, the further I got into the process, the more excited I was.”
Bissada, who is currently president and chief executive of Kanetix Ltd., which operates an online insurance and mortgage marketplace where consumers can comparison shop, will take over the role of chief executive from board member Bonita Then, who has been serving on an interim basis.
The appointment of a new chief executive is a key step for Home Capital as it aims to get back on track after it saw a partial run on its funding following accusations of misleading shareholders.
The company reached a settlement for the allegations, and a related class-action lawsuit, last month.
Bissada said his first priority is to do a review of the company and develop a plan. Other hurdles include navigating a special shareholder vote in September on the second tranche of Berkshire’s $400 million investment.