A national marketing firm has taken a piece of a California-based mortgage firm and plans to take the regional company nationwide. The transaction is expected to boost the lender’s recruiting power.
A new partnership has Guthy-Renker LLC taking “significant equity positions” in Paramount Equity Mortgage Inc., an announcement Monday indicated.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Paramount was founded in 2003 and operates from its headquarters in Roseville, Calif. It has originated more than $8 billion in mortgages from six mostly western states, according to the press release.
Guthy-Renker is “the nation’s largest direct-to-consumer marketing company.”
The move is intended to make Paramount “a sizeable player in the national market.”
Paramount Founder and Chief Executive Officer Hayes Barnar explained in the statement that Guthy-Renker’s marketing expertise will help the company reach a new set of customers. He noted that the mortgage banker already has the ability to close loans in as little as ten days.
Barnar predicts that the move will make Paramount “the employer of choice across the country for the mortgage category.”
In 2008, the Washington Department of Financial Institutions reported it would revoke Paramount’s license and issue a $500,000 fine because of alleged deceitful advertising, faulty disclosures and unlicensed originators. Paramount was criticized for failing to include required information in sponsored search engine ads.
