Net Branches Rescued

American Pacific Mortgage Corp. recently signed on a dozen former branches of Central Pacific and picked up over 100 employees in the process, Kurt Reisig, American founder and chief executive, told MortgageDaily.com in an interview Tuesday.

“When these branches found themselves without a lender, we reached out and provided an avenue for these branches and their employees,” Reisig said.

Central Pacific, which Reisig said had about 70 branches, announced it would close doors on Feb. 26, citing that the “inability to fund loans due to the lack of available warehouse lines-of-credit and the lack of cash and capital make it impossible to continue to operate.”

Central’s former employees, mainly branch managers, loan originators and support staff, pushed American’s headcount to over 800 employees, the CEO said. With the branch acquisitions, located in Washington, Oregon and California, American’s branch count is at 134.

In addition to those three states, American’s footprint includes Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii. The Roseville, Calif.-based net branch is licensed in 18 states predominantly west of the Rocky Mountains and generated mortgage volume of $2.5 billion last year.

“We are aggressively growing and expanding,” Reisig added. “We’re capitalizing on others dropping. Especially those with a mortgage banking platform. Our mortgage brokering platform has made us pretty attractive to brokers that like net branches but are concerned about the risks net branching companies with a mortgage banking platform” are exposed to.

“Our relatively modest mortgage banking platform has shielded us from the types of risk that are creating troubles in the marketplace,” he added.

Reisig said American Pacific previously operated as a branch of Central Pacific under the name Big Valley Mortgage. In 1997, the branch separated and formed American Pacific. Rather than building business on a mortgage banking model, however, American operates “more as a mortgage brokerage model” — with over 90 percent of its volume brokered to preferred lender relationships with wholesalers.

With Central’s ex-employees, American aims to push this year’s volume back up to 2005’s level of $3.0 billion. For 2008, Reisig has his sights on $3.5 billion.

There are “originators and brokers out there that need price diversity to meet customer needs,” Reisig said. “Our platform as a mortgage broker gives us much more flexibility and adaptability than a mortgage banker model.”

Related:

Central Pacific Shuts Down
The net branch operation run by the former chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association has run out of money and closed down.