In Brief: Cleveland Thrift Signs Loan Deal with Fannie

Ohio Savings Bank has agreed to sell all its conforming loans to Fannie Mae through 2000, cutting out Freddie Mac.

The thrift also plans to sell the servicing rights on $10 billion of future production, in what would be one of the largest "flow" servicing trades ever.

Ohio Savings is the largest user of Fannie's Desktop Originator, which links lenders' origination systems to the secondary marketing giant's automated underwriting system, said Jess Lederman, a senior vice president at the thrift.

Last year, Ohio Savings' production increased 142%, to $8.5 billion, thanks in part to Fannie's technology, Mr. Lederman said. He expects the thrift will originate $10 billion to $12 billion this year.

The thrift has even used Fannie's systems to underwrite and process loans that Fannie doesn't buy, Mr. Lederman said. With this new agreement, "we're going even further, working on things with Fannie Mae to take the technology to the next level," he said.

Ohio Savings is the latest lender to sign a pact with one of the two government-sponsored enterprises. Last week, three big lenders announced similar deals with Fannie; the two largest originators have teamed up with Freddie Mac.

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