An established provider of traditional mortgages has announced the launch of a new reverse mortgage lending division.
Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., which originated Alt-A mortgages until it was crippled by the subprime crisis, restarted loan originations in March 2010.
This past February, the Irvine, Calif.-based company launched a correspondent lending channel.
Now Excel Mortgage Servicing Inc., which does business as Impac Mortgage and is owned by Impac-subsidiary Real Estate Service Corp., announced Thursday that it opened a reverse mortgage division.
Impac said that it is taking advantage of the exit from the reverse mortgage sector by other major financial institutions.
Among former major players that have left the reverse mortgage industry are Bank of America, Financial Freedom, MetLife Bank and Wells Fargo.
“Impac believes there exists a great opportunity to expand into a market that is very fragmented with no current lender enjoying more than 6 percent of the market,” the statement said.
Richard Johnson and Frank Curry have been recruited to lead the new business.
Originations will initially be generated on a retail-only basis.
Impac is recruiting operations staff, outside reverse mortgage sales professionals and internal sales personnel for a call center.
The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for information about how many people are being recruited or whether product lines include both proprietary reverse mortgages and home-equity conversion mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
