Dime Adding Staff and Products to Anchor's Old Arizona Offices

Dime Bancorp is expanding its mortgage business in Arizona by adding to former Anchor Mortgage Services Inc. operations there.

Dime acquired Anchor in January.

Former Anchor offices in Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Lake Havasu City will be bolstered with additional sales personnel and an expanded line of products and services.

Dime has also opened a full-service mortgage office in Philadelphia.

The Arizona and Philadelphia offices will offer products that target specific markets.

Jenne K. Britell, chief lending officer and general manager of mortgage banking, said loans now available in both regions include products targeted at real estate brokers and mortgage brokers; affinity programs aimed at relocation offices; a high-end jumbo loan, and conforming loans.

Anchor entered the Arizona mortgage market in 1983. Its offices in the state offered only conforming loans.

"Arizona is a market with a major opportunity to expand on the retail side," Ms. Britell said. Dime's goal there, she said, is to emphasize the wider range of products and programs it can offer while maintaining "the relationships and quality business developed by Anchor."

Ms. Britell said Dime would consider expanding in other markets as familiar as Arizona to its employees.

The Anchor acquisition made Dime the fourth-largest publicly traded thrift in the United States. It also became the holding company for the fourth-largest consumer bank in the New York market.

Dime's mortgage banking operation services $13 billion of loans.

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