Horizon Bank Wholesale Lending Group - Wholesale Lender

We received the following from a scanned letter on Horizon Bank stationary as supplied by an MLIOM reader:

May 31, 2007

To Whom it May Concern,

Due to the current market conditions in our industry, Horizon Bank's Wholesale Lending Group is ceasing the origination of third-party loan origination's effective immediately. We will no longer be accepting any new third-party applications on any new loans. All currently approved loans within the pipeline will need to close by Friday, June 15th.

We have appreciated the opportunity to serve you and your customers. Thank you for your business.

Horizon Bank's Wholesale Lending Group

Horizon Bank's website is accesshorizon.com, which is not to be confused with horizonbank.com, a separate banking institution. Horizon Bank is a publicly traded company that provides various banking products and services of which wholesale lending was but one.

Horizon Bank may have only recently entered the wholesale lending business as their latest 10-Q alludes to increases in year-over-year expenses being due to "the addition of a new product line known as wholesale mortgage lending and its related staff additions". Per the wholesale lending section of their website, Horizon Bank's Wholesale Lending Group offered 1^st and 2^nd mortgages as well as 1^st and 2^nd lien lines of credit.