American Home Mortgage / American Brokers Conduit - Retail Wholesale Alt-A A

We have received information indicating that both American Home Mortgage as well as American Brokers Conduit (ABC) will "close their doors" tomorrow. Regarding American Home Mortgage, the following news> was released a short while ago:

Just after 3 p.m., company founder Michael Strauss sent an email to employees saying, "American Home Mortgage has been forced to close." It said tomorrow would be their final day of employment.

Employees expressed frustration with the secrecy of this week's process, and with upper management's decision not to disclose any information about the company's status until the bankruptcy was announced earlier today.

We have gotten word that the closure of AHM will affect some 7,000 employees.

We have received an inordinate amount of tips (Thank you!) regarding both American Home Mortgage as well as American Brokers Conduit, which is owned by AHM. Regarding the latter, we recived the following:

I just received an email from our CEO - American Home Mortgage and its subsidiary, ABC will close our doors tomorrow - Friday, August 3rd. Again, we sincerely apologize for the added stress to your lives, and strain on your borrower relationships.

Please let us know what we can do to help you. Our company cell phones may be disconnected in the next day or so. ...

As has been noted here and elsewhere, it would seem that ABC ceased funding this week and has yet to be able to resume funding. We are trying to ascertain the size of ABC's operations. Further, we believe the closure of AHM will also affect HLB; however, we have not gathered much information on HLB to date. If you have any of this information, please send us an email so we can complete this entry.

Original notation from 2007-08-01 when ABC was on the "Ailing/Watch List"

As has been widely reported, American Brokers Conduit or "ABC" has ceased funding loans. The following was forwarded to us yesterday regarding ABC:

AMERICAN BROKERS CONDUIT

Our creditors called our lines yesterday and we are not able to fund your loans. There have been serious talks with a suitor but as of this time we have not heard anything from our corporate offices in New York.

Unfortunately we do not have any additional information at this time so we are taking measure to advise you so you can coordinate with your borrowers if you have any loans pending with ABC.

Please do not send any more loans until this matter has been resolved.

Thank you for your loyalty to me and ABC. I will keep you posted as events occur. I appreciate all the business you have sent to me and I will continue to be there for you through these rough times.

The above is just one of many, many tips and confirmations that ABC has suspending funding loans. Some tips suggest ABC believes they will be funding again in short order.

The lingering question seems to be whether or not ABC will be bought. Though we've received varying, sometimes contradictory tips to this effect, we are unable to confirm if ABC has a potential buyer or multiple suitors.

Suffice to say that we are keeping a close watch on these developments as they occur. Stay tuned...