The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced Tuesday that John A. Courson, the organization’s president and CEO, will be leaving the association, effective June 1, 2011. Courson will be replaced by David H. Stevens, the current commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Stevens announced last week that he would be resigning from his position at FHA. His departure from the federal agency is set for March 31. According to MBA, he will join the trade group in May.

“David Stevens is uniquely qualified to lead the association in its next chapter,” said Michael D. Berman, CMB, MBA’s chairman. “Most recently he has had a tremendous impact at FHA, as that program faced its own unprecedented challenges.”

Prior to his role as FHA commissioner, Stevens was president and COO of Long and Foster Companies, one of the nation’s largest, privately-held real estate firms.

Stevens started his professional career with a 16-year tenure at the World Savings Bank, where he began as a loan officer. He later served briefly as EVP at Wells Fargo, and spent seven years as SVP at Freddie Mac, where he created and ran the small lender channel.

During his time at FHA, Stevens implemented a myriad of changes to improve FHA’s risk management and to help the federal mortgage insurer weather the storm of increased losses during a time of elevated mortgage defaults and the rapid expansion of the agency’s footprint to include well over 20 percent of new mortgages in the single-family market.

Stevens is departing his seat, just as debates heat up over how much support the government should provide the housing market over the long term.