Chase Prime - Wholesale - Agency, A-paper
2009-01-13
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stories: nytimes.com
Midday Update - 2009-09-13 4:45 PM EST We have confirmed the deadline for new loan submissions will be this Friday, 2009-01-16. All loans must fund by 2009-03-20. The last day for AE's will be next Wednesday, 2009-01-21; we're told there were about 190 nationwide, 80+ of which were in CA.
Operations staff will be let go by 2009-03-20. We are still working to verify the total number, but have reports of 60+ in the Orange, CA center, around 75 in Cleveland, OH, and between 45 to 50 from the Charlotte, NC office. One source estimated the Dallas, TX center had about 50 staff, and the headquarters in Jacksonville, FL employed as many as 200 people. All employees are being given 60 days pay plus severance based on time with the company. Said an AE we spoke with, "they are treating us absolutely excellent."
View the official announcement sent to wholesale customers.
Original Listing - 2009-01-13 In a division-wide conference call to wholesale employees at 12:00 PM EST, Chase announced it would be closing Prime Wholesale. We were told there were about 190 AE's left nationwide. Correspondent will remain in operation, but is cutting back 25% - about 45 people - and will no longer be open to brokers. The Rural Development channel will also remain open. A follow-up call at 1:30 PM EST is expected to have the deadlines and official closing dates.
Original Ailing Listing - 2008-09-23 Current and former Chase employees have contacted us about conference calls going on today for Chase's Prime Wholesale lending unit.
"One of my friends that is still there on the Wholesale Prime side just called and said they have a conference call this morning that sounds like they are going down... talking severance packages, etc. She took her package and ran."
Another tipster suggested this may just be a dramatic downsizing, "reducing their workforce by 90%."
It wasn't long before we received the official announcement to Chase brokers. The ChaseLoanCenters are being consolidated to four locations from eight. Forum posts indicated "79 AE's" and "some Regional Managers" were let go in conjunction with the office closures, leaving 275 AE's. Staffing will be increased at the remaining locations in Dallas, TX; Charlotte, N.C.; Cleveland, OH; and Orange, CA to absorb processing volume.
The following offices will be closing: Garden City, N.Y.; Westmont, Ill.; Tampa, FL; and San Ramon, CA.
Chase Prime cut back to bare-bones Agency lending in early August with this broker announcement, eliminating Jumbos and all non-Agency products. In a NY Times article, Chairman & CEO Jamie Dimon said Chase "expected losses on prime loans at his bank to triple in the coming months and described the outlook for them as "terrible."" An email cover for the 2008-08-01 announcement offered this explanation for the product cuts:
"First, we have seen a dramatic reduction in Jumbo volume levels over the past six months. To a point, it has become a very small percentage of our overall business. Secondly, Capital Markets continue to exhibit no interest in this product, as it sees safer and more liquid products such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae Mortgage-Backed Securities as better investments. Thirdly, our delinquency performance on these loans has been substantially worse than both our expectations and standards allow."
Previously, we imploded the Home Equity and Subprime divisions of Chase Wholesale in mid-May. Speculation about the future of Chase Prime Wholesale on our Discussion Forums arose soon afterward. Wrote one tipster, "JP Morgan Chase only does a few million a month in Prime wholesale." That doesn't sound like a volume level capable of sustaining the channel going forward.
Stay tuned for updates, and contact us if you can provide more details. View the mose recent discussion about Chase Prime Wholesale on our forums here.
permalink to this record | forum thread
tryingtolend at 01:32 2008-09-24 said:
Does anyone have any insight? Thank you. Permalinkfactchecker at 18:01 2008-09-24 said:
why does the implode notice say Chase is only doing a few million a month in wholesale? Clearly one single rep would do couple million a month. Any published reports of ranking shows the volume being done. Odd to take that note from a tipster and publish it. Maybe I misread that or took out of context. To answer the question posted above there is a thread started by BFGB in the forum which has a few details but there is not much to learn. pretty straight forward announcement to me. Permalinkmtg chick at 21:30 2008-09-26 said:
TIC TOC, TIC TOC.... :twisted:You are sooooooooo bad. Don't you feel bad in some small way that people are losing their jobs with all this mess going on??? C'mon...I know some part of you has to feel bad about it. Permalink
thebfgb at 23:08 2008-09-26 said:
TIC TOC, TIC TOC.... :twisted:Just wait till your bank disappears - TIC TOC TIC TOC. 8) It will probably get gobbled up by Chase. Permalink
thebfgb at 23:13 2008-09-26 said:
why does the implode notice say Chase is only doing a few million a month in wholesale? Clearly one single rep would do couple million a month. Any published reports of ranking shows the volume being done. Odd to take that note from a tipster and publish it. Maybe I misread that or took out of context. To answer the question posted above there is a thread started by BFGB in the forum which has a few details but there is not much to learn. pretty straight forward announcement to me.Yeah not sure what their tipster was talking about on that comment. Or maybe they just wrote down incorrect information. I bet even JDIMON's small bank can hit a couple million a month. Permalink
JDIMON at 10:03 2008-09-27 said:
I do feel bad, it happened to me, remember? My comments are directed SOLEY at THEGBFG or whatever. I will savor the moment I can tell him 'I told you so', cause NObody likes a wisea$$ know it all. Any week now, TIC TOC, TIC TOC... PermalinkTIC TOC, TIC TOC.... :twisted:You are sooooooooo bad. Don't you feel bad in some small way that people are losing their jobs with all this mess going on??? C'mon...I know some part of you has to feel bad about it.
mtg chick at 10:14 2008-09-27 said:
And do you honestly think BFGb will ever tell ANYONE on here if he was ever let go from Chase?????? NOT.................... It will go something like this...................he will announce that he has chosen to move to another lender or job because of the merger between Chase and WAMU. He will NEVER give ANYONE (especially you) the satisfation of letting anyone know that he was given a pink slip. He would rather have his eyes yanked out and be tortured for hours before hearing you tell him "I told you so" If thats what you're waiting for you will be waiting a long time Jdimon. :roll: PermalinkJeffMortgageMan at 13:55 2009-01-13 said:
Regardless of the childish comments in here, especially the tick toc tick toc one.... people will still continue to lose their jobs in 2009, in this market. Overall, 2008 was good for me and I see 2009 even being better. Only the strong will survive... being a banker that has about 5 investors who they can sell to and also have the capacity to broker, if need be, will be the big survivors in my opinion. All of this is just a fact of life and greed got in the way with many of these lenders, investors, Wall Street, and loan officers. I don't see a good recovery until 2011. jeff PermalinkThere are more posts. Click here to view the whole thread
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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.