Charter One (Wholesale) - Wholesale

Charter One Specialty Lending Group, a division of Royal Bank of Scotland Citizens, N.A. announced this morning "...the Bank has decided to exit the wholesale mortgage lending business."

"Charter One will no longer accept loan applications through its wholesale broker channel as of 5:00pm EST today, 11-27-07. Loan applications previously submitted through the wholesale broker channel will continue to be processed with the same support staff and service levels previously provided by Charter One. Loan applications in the pipeline must be closed and funded by January 4, 2008."

The Royal Bank of Scotland entered the U.S. market in 1988 by acquiring Citizens Financial Group Inc. in Providence, Rhode Island, and followed that three years later with the $10.3 billion purchase of Cleveland-based Charter One Financial Inc.

With branches in 13 states, and non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states their web site shows 1,617 Branches, and over 24,000 employees. We've been told the product mix was about 65% 2nd mortgages and HELOCS, with the remaining being Agency firsts.

According to All Mortgage Detail, they funded over 29,000 loans in 2005 totaling over $3,362,000,000.00. Current information is limited at this time, but we have tips that about 50 to 100 AE's will be cut, and no word on Operations staff, except there 'may' be an opportunity to join the Retail Lending operations for some impacted by this closure.

If you have more information, please let us know.