The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) elected and swore in Kentucky banker David G. Kittle as its 2009 chairman during the association’s 95th annual convention this week in San Francisco. The executive vice president of Vision Mortgage Capital in Louisville, Ky., Kittle is a past chair of the MBA’s political action committee and also served as vice chair of its residential board of governors.

Kittle will focus on the association's legislative and regulatory goals, including supporting and ensuring effective implementation of initiatives within the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and continued support of a uniform federal standard to combat abusive lending.

The MBA named Robert E. Story Jr., president of Seattle Financial Group, its chairman-elect and named as vice chairman Michael D. Berman, founder and chief operating officer of CWFinancial Services in Needham, Mass. Story serves on the MBA board of directors and is a former chairman of MBA’s residential board of governors; Berman is president of CWCapital, the multifamily and commercial lending subsidiary of CWFinancial Services.

MBA previously tapped Berman’s commercial expertise when he served on its commercial/multifamily board of governors and as chair of the MBA’s Strategic Planning Committee in 2007. He currently serves on the board of directors.

The MBA is a Washington, D.C.-based national trade association representing the real estate finance industry. Its membership of more than 2,400 companies includes all elements of real estate finance, both residential and commercial.