Senderra Funding - Wholesale - Agency, FHA

Update - 2009-03-18: Several sources have confirmed Goldman Sachs' Avelo Mortgage, L.L.C. dba Senderra Funding has eliminated all but a handful of its wholesale broker relationships. We're given to understand that Goldman Sachs has issued a "gag order" to discourage Senderra Funding employees from speaking about the company's situation. According to one source we were able to speak with, prime mortgage servicer and Goldman Sachs' subsidiary Avelo Mortgage, L.L.C. inherited a book of "bad business" when Goldman Sachs acquired subprime servicer Litton Loan Servicing in December of 2007.

We heard Senderra's remaining wholesale operation exists to "sprinkle some good stuff in to move the 60 and 90 late retention loans" to make the Litton portfolios saleable.

Original Ailing Post - 2009-03-10: Brokers are telling us they are hearing from their reps that Goldman Sachs'Senderra Funding is either exiting or drastically reducing wholesale operations, maintaining a retail presence in the Charlotte, NC area only. The memo -- which appears to be a form letter customized and emailed to individual broker clients -- announces 2009-03-17 as the last day for submitting locked loans:

"During this time of unprecedented events and changes Senderra Funding has chosen to limit our future mortgage originations to a more targeted customer base."

That seems somewhat ambiguous, but the rest of the letter is more succinct:

"Effective immediately no new rate locks will be accepted online at www.senderra.com. Effective immediately no applications may be accepted."

One source indicated this is not a complete shutdown of wholesale. "Senderra Funding is scaling back their wholesale unit and have decided to almost eliminate all broker relationships. In fact they are only [continuing] to do business with 10 broker shops in the entire country."

Senderra Funding is a dba of Goldman Sachs' subsidiary Avelo Mortgage, L.L.C. headquartered in Fort Mill, SC and lending in 47 states. Available volume info indicates average monthly volume for 2007 was $30.8 million. Goldman Sachs acquired Senderra Funding, formerly a subprime lender, in April of 2007 and transformed it into an FHA shop to refinance their portfolio of subprime mortgages as reported by Bloomberg in a 2008-11-19 article entitled "FHA-Backed Loans: The New Subprime."

We have placed multiple calls into Senderra's National Sales Manager Steve Lemon and RVP Sales Brett Hively for further clarification on the situation. In the meantime, if you can provide additional details or confirmation please do not hesitate to contact us.