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AmeriBanc Corp. - Agency, FHA, Alt-A, Jumbo, H.E.

2008-04-10

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We received this announcement via email:

"AmeriBanc has officially ceased operations- see attached.

We originated over $1.8 billion from 2001-2006 primarily wholesale.

Loan repurchases and losses from those repurchases have resulted in our inability to maintain Warehouse Lines, Investors approvals or liquidity so a complete shutdown of the Company has occurred."

The attachment states "On April 3rd 2008 the Board of Directors of AmeriBanc Corporation voted to cease the Operations of Ameribanc Corporation."

We spoke with Managing Director David Maxwell and CFO Robert Hulin. In their hayday, Ameribanc saw monthly volume peak at about $37.5 million. According to allmortgagedetail.com, this had dropped to an average of about $33 million per month in 2005, and fell dramatically to just over $5 million per month in 2006. The company employed 30 people, but is now down to three who remain to effect the final shut down of all operations by 2008-04-30.

AmeriBanc, like so many others, is the latest victim of the domino-effect the credit crunch has had across all lending platforms. They suspended operations as of 2006-12-31, but continued to service a portfolio of $2 million, mostly second mortgages. In August of 2007, they made an attempt to resume their wholesale business, but were thwarted by the loss of their warehouse line when Citi announced it was shuttering its warehouse-lending channel, First Collateral Services, followed by revocations by other warehouse lenders in a matter of days. Shortly thereafter, a number of repurchase requests from Aurora Loan Services sealed their fate. Operations ground to a halt in November of 2007, and volume for the year ended up at zero dollars.

The company has surrendered their DRE license in California, and Maxwell told us "bankruptcy is entirely plausible." They were unable to make payroll at the end of March as they continued to struggle managing expenses related to the buybacks.

AmeriBanc is headquarted in San Ramone, CA, and had a branch office in Medford, OR.



Comments:

Dinochick at 23:10 2008-05-29 said:
Ameribanc had difficulties for a long time, with repurchases and warehouse lines, and it was not from the mortgage industry meltdown. It was based on a meltdown of various individuals within the organization.

The correct checkpoints were not in place (as with so many other organizations) because of greed on the part of some of the officers. Individuals like myself who reported issues such as these were not received very well. The honest ones were shoved out and the unethical ones remained. That was the problem with many companies, and not just Ameribanc.

Hopefully, the industry will learn from this experience and this time will only represent a skinned knee in a marathon race. Permalink

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Important: This company is on our list of lending operations that have "imploded". However, please note that "imploded" is a somewhat subjective and does not necessarily mean operations are ceased permanently: it can mean bankruptcy filing, temporary but open-ended halting of major operations, or "firesale" acquisition. All information here is provisional, and may contain inaccuracies (especially newer information). If you are planning on doing business with this company or any other one listed on this site, you should inquire with them directly on whether they can still meet your needs. Many are still operating in some capacity.