Bluebonnet weighs sale of mortgage assets.

Bluebonnet Savings Bank is mulling the sale of some or all of its mortgage banking assets, according tomarket sources and officials of the Dallas thrift.

President Brad Oates says Bluebonnet thrift is evaluating it mortgage subsidiaries, a process that he said Ccould prompt a decision to divest things that are not core assets."

Bluebonnet, which was sold by the Resolution Trust Corp. under the old Southwest plan in 1988, is in the process of ending its support agreement with the government.

As part of this, Mr. Oates said, the thrift is taking a long, hard look at its lines of business and may be forced to make "painful decisions."

According to the executive, Bluebonnet will probably concentrate on its Texas operations, which could mean the sale of its out-of-state mortgage assets.

Those include RNG Mortgage, a Santa Ana, Calif., mortgage bank; Magnum Mortgage, a St. Louis-based lender; and a servicing center in Atlanta.

If Bluebonnet does decide to market its mortgage assets, it will join a growing parade of companies seeking to exit the market. US Bancorp and Arbor National Mortgage are just two of many banks andmortgage banks to seek buyers for mortgage assets.

Such a decision would be something of an about-face for Bluebonnet, which only last year closed its acquisition of RNG.

Last year, Bluebonnet exited a separate mortgage related line of business -- warehouse lending.

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