Secured Funding Ceases Wholesale Operations

Another mortgage operation said late Friday that it has shut down, the latest victim of deteriorating market conditions.

Secured Funding, a Costa Mesa, Calif.-based HELOC and home equity lender, has ceased its wholesale operations, according to a notice posted on the company’s website.

The shutdown mirrors the recent difficulties faces by subprime lender MLN USA, which shuttered its wholesale operations last week amid what it characterized as quickly deteriorating market conditions. MLN was the third-largest originator of subprime mortgages at the time of its shutdown.

In the first half of 2006, Secured Funding Corporation originated more than 11,600 loans totaling nearly $900 million in loan production, a 64 percent increase in the company’s production volume from a year earlier.

As of June 30, Secured Funding totaled approximately 1,000 employees, and the company increased its office space by 35,000 square feet during the quarter. Over the same time, the company’s wholesale channel added more than 200 brokers.

Calls to the company for comment were not returned by press time.