Raymond Lapin, 67, Dies; Set Trends in Mortgages

GREENBRAE, Calif. — Raymond H. Lapin, a San Francisco mortgage banking executive who was known as the father of the secondary mortgage market, has died. He was 67.

During the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lapin served as the first president of the Government National Mortgage Assn. and as president and chairman of the Federal National Mortgage Assn.

Lapin, who headed both organizations from 1967-69 and helped develop the concept of mortgage-backed securities, died Wednesday from complications of heart disease at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae.

Fannie Mae is the largest secondary-mortgage market entity in the country. Ginnie Mae guarantees FHA and VA home loans, which allows them to be more readily sold in the securities market.

As president of Fannie Mae, Lapin developed and won congressional approval for changes in national budget concepts that allowed Fannie Mae to become a private company. Today, based on assets, Fannie Mae ranks as the fourth largest corporation in the United States.

Lapin also was president of Bankers Mortgage Co., which he founded in 1954. It ranked as the nation’s seventh largest mortgage banking company before it was sold to Transamerica Corp. in 1963.

Lapin received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1942 and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago in 1954.

Survivors include his wife, Mary; a son, John, of New York City; a brother, Howard S. Lapin of Washington, D.C.; a sister, Louise Haines, of Los Angeles, and his mother, Sara Goldberg, of Los Angeles.