Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Open Correspondent Lending Division, Provide Jobs for Former WAMU Execs

12:53 am - December 2nd, 2006

When Washington Mutual(NYSE:WM) announced the closing of their correspondent lending division earlier this year it was part of the restructuring of their mortgage lending and portfolio servicing strategy. WAMU also sold about 1/3rd of it’s loan servicing portfolio, including all of their government loan servicing to Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC).

But those who worried about the management team at Washington Mutual need worry no more. Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Corporation who is a top 15 wholesale lender out of Florida has opened a correspondent lending division. Heading this effort are:

Doug Miller – Executive Vice-President overseeing correspondent lending division – Held same position at WAMU
Michael Azzarello, CMB – Production Manager – Held similar position at WAMU
Patricia Shumate – Production Manager – Held similar position at WAMU
Tag Gallaher – SVP Correspondent Operations – Held same position at WAMU

What may prove to be a win/win for both Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and the “breakfast club” from WAMU is the complent of each other’s strengths. TB&W has long been known for their technology platform TBDirect which provides a mortgage broker with electronic underwriting, condition delivery and approval. The paperless system even includes scheduling the closing and ordering loan documents on-line. This type of technology platform must seem as foreign to the WAMU folks as a laptop computer would to one of the pilgrims. Due to WAMU’s acquisition of competitor banks over the past 10 years, their technology staff has been stuck trying to get one dos-based servicing platform to play nice with another.

So while the former WAMU execs get new technology to play with, they bring an institutional and streamlined approach to mortgage banking the basic loan programs. There’s no doubt that they have the relationships to bring in large volume government and Freddie Mac oriented loan production. The real question is whether their correspondent customers will trust a new entry to the industry. No mortgage banker likes to be the one to test out a new division. If Taylor, Bean & Whitaker can get their secondary marketing, post closing operations, and government insuring groups in place and functional then this could be a great expansion for this privately owned mortgage bank.