A little-known mortgage bank is picking up some of the pieces of Bank of New York's moribund mortgage company.
National Pacific Mortgage Corp., Anaheim, Calif., has purchased 10 West Coast offices of Bank of New York's Arcs Mortgage unit.
After a prolonged search for a buyer, in January Bank of New York decided to shut down Arcs Mortgage and sell its servicing.
But National Pacific saw value in some of the offices, said Charles Sale, executive vice president, and sought to acquire them. Before approaching Arcs, National Pacific sounded out the staff of the offices to gauge their enthusiasm. "We liked the people, so we went to Arcs," said Mr. Sale.
The purchase price was not disclosed.
The offices are located in California and Oregon and last year produced just under $300 million of mortgage loans. About 50 loan originators and support personnel work at the sites. "The offices we bought had no overlap with what we already had," said Mr. Sale.
Before the acquisition privately held National Pacific had 14 offices in California and Nevada. Last year the mortgage lender had $750 million in volume. About 70% of that was produced through retail offices, with the remainder purchased from brokers or correspondents.
It also owns the rights to service $1.5 billion of home loans.
Despite tough times in the mortgage banking business, which has been hit hard by lower volume and price competition, National Pacific views 1995 as a good time to expand. "National Pacific believes that by prudently expanding during this industry consolidation, it will position itself as one of the dominant mortgage lenders on the West Coast in the years to come," said Steven P. Ginder, president.
Bank of New York is currently marketing its $9 billion servicing portfolio. Countrywide Servicing Exchange, a unit of Countrywide Credit Industries, is handling the sale.
