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Local banks dominated the latest news about mortgage industry mergers.
Wolters Kluwer Corporate & Financial Services said it acquired Web-based compliance solutions provider Entyre. Wolters noted Entyre’s software platform for data and document management and delivery, which allows compliance testing, and electronic collaboration and communication between and among the numerous stakeholders in the mortgage origination and closing process, the announcement said. Entyre will reportedly become a part of the financial services customer unit of Wolters. CUNA Mutual Group recently disclosed it signed a letter of intent to sell its mortgage business to PHH Mortgage. CUNA Mutual said it decided on the move after several months of strategically reviewing the mortgage unit and concluding additional investment was “required to deliver efficient, best-in-class services to our credit union customers and their members.” The spin off of CUNA Mutual Mortgage Corp. will result in 175 job losses, with a majority of them being in Wisconsin. In Fort Worth, Texas, State National Bancshares Inc. announced it completed acquiring all of Heritage Financial Corp.’s capital stock for $53.5 million in cash. State National said the acquisition is consistent with its growth strategy of expanding in Tarrant County, Texas, as it will expand its footprint in the north and east side of the community to the southwest side of the market. As for Heritage, this “transaction is going to allow us to expand our services, make larger loans and improve our menu of deposit products,” it said in the announcement. In Jasper, Ind., German American Bancorp announced it has acquired PCB Holing Co. in a deal valued at $6.7 million. PCB’s Peoples Community Bank reportedly merged with and into First State Bank, German’s Tell City, Ind.-based banking affiliate. “The addition of Peoples Community Bank to our growing family of community banks represents a next step in our continuing efforts to provide a vehicle by which smaller community banks can join forces to become more competitive,” said Mark Schroeder, German’s president and chief executive, in the statement. In Walnut Creek, Calif., PMI Group Inc. announced that it completed selling all of its outstanding stock of SPS Holding Corp. to Credit Suisse First Boston, which exercised its option to acquire SPS in August. Under terms of the previously announced deal, PMI received an initial $95 million in cash and will receive additional monthly cash payments through the first quarter of 2008 from a residual interest in mortgage servicing assets with an estimated book value at closing of approximately $21 million, according to the announcement. SPS is the parent of Select Portfolio Servicing Inc., which was formerly known as Fairbanks Capital Corp. |
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Coco Salazar is an assistant editor and staff writer for MortgageDaily.com.E-mail: s3celeste@aol.com |

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