In Brief (four items)

IPI Financial Spinoff Plans Public Offering

NEW YORK - MortgageIT, which last year was spun off from the mortgage broker IPI Financial Services Inc., is planning an initial public offering this year.The Internet-only mortgage broker is working with a national network of 120 financial institutions, including Bank of America Corp., Chase Manhattan Bank, Citigroup Inc., and Countrywide. The company is raising $50 million in a second round of venture capital funding that is being managed by Goldman Sachs & Co. and expected to close March 1.

Doug Naidus, co-founder of MortgageIT, 11 years ago co-founded IPI Financial Services, a New York company that closed more than $2 billion in loans last year. Though loan production is declining as interest rates rise, "more and more loans are being originated on the Internet," he said.

Forrester Research predicted that by 2003 annual mortgage lending volume over the Internet would be more than $90 billion, or nearly 10% of total volume. Mr. Naidus, citing research by Goldman Sachs, said that by 2004 Internet originations could rise to as much as 15% of all retail mortgage originations, 50 times current volume.

ING Barings and Sandler Capital were first-round investors in MortgageIT, buying a 50% stake.

- Steven Marjanovic


Calif. Subprime Lender To Use Xpede Software

OAKLAND, Calif. - Finance America LLC, a subprime mortgage lender, said its retail and wholesale divisions will use software from Xpede Inc. for Internet origination.The Irvine, Calif., lender is Xpede's second customer. The first was First Union Corp.

Oakland-based Xpede, founded in 1998, says its on-line mortgage loan software reduces processing times from weeks to days and origination costs by more than half.

Finance America will use private-label software from Xpede to offer brokers access to a secure Web site that will let them price a loan in less than a minute, Xpede said.

On the retail side, Finance America will equip loan officers with laptops running Xpede's software. They will be able to give borrowers conditional loan approvals by telephone or in person, using a Finance America automated underwriting system built into the Xpede software. Finance America expects to start using the software within two months.


CS First Boston to Sell Debt Securities On-Line

NEW YORK - Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. is to distribute debt securities electronically for institutional investors.PrimeDebt, a global distribution service for the primary issuance of debit securities, will provide issuers with an on-line platform for marketing and executing debt offers. This includes high-grade, high-yield, and structured products.

Key features include electronic order entry and allocation, electronic distribution of new issue information and on-line access to marketing materials. The application will be available to about 10,000 institutional investors through CS First Boston's Web site.


Fidelity Senior Exec Joins RoweCom as VP

WESTWOOD, Mass. - RoweCom Inc., which runs Web services to help businesses manage newspaper, magazine, and journal subscriptions and buy books, has hired a Fidelity Investments executive as chief financial officer.Paul Burmeister, 47, was chief financial officer at Fidelity Investments Systems Co.

RoweCom's customers include Bank of America Corp., First Union Corp., Prudential Securities, and Charles Schwab & Co.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER