Veteran mortgage banking executives Donn Costa and Debbie Steck have joined 1st Security Bank of Washington.

Costa and Steck accepted positions of Senior Vice President and are leading the effort to build a mortgage lending department with 1st Security, which has banking branches in six Puget Sound locations.

Steck and Costa have worked together since the mid-1990s at what was then known as Lynnwood Financial Corp., the highly successful mortgage company that became Golf Savings Bank in 2000 and was purchased by Sterling Financial in 2006. Together, they led Golf’s home lending division of over 500 employees, closing nearly $3 billion in home loans in 2010, the most of any bank headquartered in the state of Washington.

“In today’s market, people face many challenges in home lending,” said 1st Security CEO Joe Adams. “By putting this new team in place, we can deliver the highest quality products and services to our customers.”

Costa most recently held the position of Executive Vice President of Sterling Savings Bank. Prior to the merger with Sterling, Costa was the president of Lynnwood Financial, the parent company of Golf. Before joining Golf, he was a loan officer with Phoenix Mortgage in Seattle and a consistent member of the company’s prestigious President’s Club.

Steck has over 25 years of mortgage industry experience, 17 of them working for Golf Savings Bank and its predecessor, Lynnwood Financial. She most recently held the position of Senior Vice President and Operating Officer of Home Lending at Sterling Savings Bank. Prior to the merger with Sterling, Steck was the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Golf Savings Bank.

Home lending products will be in each of the current six bank branches, including its Mountlake Terrace headquarters. Plans are underway to add a new location in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood later in the year. The bank also plans to add stand-alone home lending locations in the Puget Sound area.

1st Security Bank of Washington first opened in 1937 as a credit union. It converted to a community bank in 2004 to offer a wider variety of services.