Liberty Mortgage Corporation - Wholesale - Agency, FHA/VA

Wholesale lender Liberty Mortgage Corporation, the Atlanta, GA based subsidiary of BB&T Corporation, has announced it will be exiting the wholesale lending arena:

"We are writing to let you know that Liberty Mortgage has decided to realign its resources and will exit the wholesale lending business. The timetable for Liberty's business discontinuance is:

• Last day to allow new loan registrations: June 2, 2010, 5 p.m. ET
• Last day to lock or relock loans: June 30, 2010, 5 p.m. ET
• Last day loans may be submitted: June 30, 2010, 5 p.m. ET
• Last day to close loans: July 31, 2010, unless lock expiration is after that date. In those instances, the loans must close by the lock expiration date. There will be no extensions beyond July 31, 2010."

Sources that contacted us indicated this came as a complete surprise both to broker clients and the Account Executives at Liberty. We inquired with parent BB&T for more detail and were sent the following statements by VP of Corporate Communications Merrie Tolbert:

"Liberty Mortgage Corporation and BB&T today announced plans to realign its resources and exit the wholesale lending business. By realigning those resources, we will be able to ramp up our commitment to correspondent lending which will increase our ability to grow the Mortgage Warehouse Lending division we gained from the Colonial Bank acquisition."

Tolbert indicated the 51 employees of Liberty were expected to transition to other positions inside the company. "Those who do not transition will be offered severance packages and are considered for open positions in other areas of the company. The Atlanta operations will remain in the current office," she said. Peak volumes for the wholesale operation averaged around $240 million per month according to Tolbert, and recent production had dropped to half that amount.