HomeBridge Financial Services, a national independent mortgage lender based in Iselin, New Jersey, officially completed the purchase of the operating assets of Prospect Mortgage from Prospect Holding Company.
The move, according to HomeBridge, makes it “one of the largest nonbank mortgage lenders in the country, with retail branches nationwide and two wholesale divisions, REMN Wholesale and HomeBridge Wholesale.” The purchase also added approximately 500 mortgage loan originators from Prospect, responsible for $8.4 billion in loan production in 2016.
And on top of the added originators, HomeBridge’s retail footprint now includes more than 250 branch locations in 35 states.
“Through the acquisition, we now have improved access to capital while remaining the entrepreneurial and nimble mortgage lender the industry knows us as,” said HomeBridge CEO Peter Norden.
Under the agreement, HomeBridge President Joel Katz and Chief Operating Officer Joe Sheridan will continue to lead the business. Also, Michael Williams, Prospect's chairman and CEO, will remain with HomeBridge in an advisory role for the immediate future.
The purchase was first announced in November 2016 and came shortly after predictions from the Mortgage Bankers Association estimated that mortgage acquisitions would be increasing.