Home 123 Mortgage - Retail Subprime Lender (New Century Subsidiary)

Update - 2009-03-18: We spoke with Rob Jenkins at PBG Financial, the firm who bought branding rights for Home123 from New Century. Home123 was not brought back as a lender -- it was a lead generation partnership that was exclusive to Central States until they terminated the contract on 1/7/09, and the implosion of Central States Mortgage had no bearing on Home123. PBG still holds the brand "Home123" as a lead broker to other lenders, and Jenkins indicated PBG is in the process of establishing Home123 as an actual lender trying to negotiate an arrangement to establish the brand as a banking subsidiary.

Update - 2008-09-02: Reported today in MarketWatch, Home 123 Mortgage is being relaunched by PBG Financial Services Ltd. (PBG) who bought the rights to Home 123 Mortgage and related brands from former parent New Century Financial Corporation. In partnership with PBG is Central States Mortgage Inc., who "will provide all financial services including fixed and adjustable rate mortgages, refinancing, FHA loans, VA loans, interest only loans, reverse mortgages and other borrower specific programs."

"Central States Mortgage is the retail mortgage-banking division of CSMC, Inc., a Wisconsin-based Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO). The CSMC, Inc. family of businesses focuses on building communities through homeownership by offering a full suite of services under a single umbrella to suit most any lending or homeownership need. Central States Mortgage services homeownership needs for over 400 credit unions across the country."

Oops, we forgot to declare Home 123 officially imploded. Silly us! Let the record show that, as of New Century's bankruptcy filing April 2nd, their retail subsidiary Home 123 also ceased operations. A rather definitive statement to this effect is posted on their web site:

New Century Mortgage Corporation and Home123 Corporation are unable to continue the origination or funding of mortgage loans, and no new loans are being accepted. We are committed to helping borrowers who have been affected by this. We are in the process of contacting customers and brokers to inform them that we're returning their loan applications, and to assist them in obtaining funding for pending loans.

Some scuttlebutt on the topic of whether employees are being retained/paid.