HomeStreet Bank’s move away from mortgages is nearing its completion, as the bank announced Monday that it has completed the second part of the sale of a sizable piece of its origination business to Homebridge Financial Services.
Earlier this year, HomeStreet, a community bank and mortgage lender that operates bank branches and standalone home loan centers, announced plans to sell off much of its retail mortgage origination business, along with nearly all of the mortgage servicing rights associated with the loans originated in those retail outlets.
Later, the bank found buyers for its businesses, agreeing to sell a sizable piece of its origination business to Homebridge. Additionally, New Residential Mortgage and PennyMac agreed to buy more than 70% of HomeStreet’s MSR portfolio.
Earlier this month, HomeStreet began the process of selling the parts of its retail origination business, which includes 72 home loan centers in five states, to Homebridge.
In that portion of the deal, Homebridge acquired HomeStreet’s mortgage production branches and fulfillment functions in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, including processing, underwriting and funding, and hired the related personnel.
And now, the second phase of the deal is complete, with Homebridge acquiring an additional 17 stand-alone, satellite, and fulfillment offices from HomeStreet.
According to the companies, the second part of the deal brings the total number of office locations acquired in the deal to 47.
As part of this second phase, Homebridge hired approximately 110 former HomeStreet origination and support personnel. This brings the total number of former HomeStreet employees hired on by Homebridge to approximately 450.
“This second closing of the offices and personnel transferring to Homebridge represents a significant achievement for HomeStreet toward its long-term strategic goals,” said Mark Mason, HomeStreet chairman, president, and CEO.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank those employees who are part of this transaction for their hard work and wish them well with their careers at Homebridge, along with those HomeStreet employees who worked so hard to make the transition as smooth as possible,” Mason added.
According to Homebridge, as a result of these additions, the company will now be “among the top 10 privately owned, independent mortgage lenders in the country based on volume.”
