On Tuesday, Optimal Blue, a provider of secondary marketing automation for the mortgage industry, announced it acquired mortgage loan trader Resitrader, creating the industry’s largest mortgage loan trading platform.
This acquisition now allows Optimal Blue to support $750 billion in transactions each year across its digital mortgage marketplace. That is comprised of about $600 billion in rate locks processed through its product and pricing engine and about $150 billion in transactions through its hedging solution.
Back in 2016, Optimal Blue was acquired by private equity firm GTCR. At that point, the company’s new CEO Scott Happ announced his commitment to grow the company, and a $350 million equity capital investment.
“Two years ago, Optimal Blue set out to build a digital mortgage marketplace that facilitates transactions between originators, investors and the providers both use,” Happ said. “This acquisition is another key step in that journey.”
“Resitrader is the clear market leader in bringing efficiency, transparency and security to a critical and expanding segment of the mortgage market, and we are excited to offer this innovative solution to our clients,” he said.
Resitrader’s interactive trading environment enables buyers, sellers and their advisors to transact in real time using an auction process. It replaces the method of exchanging bid tapes through email.
The solution also helps traders optimize executions by supporting shadow-bidding, the posting of axes, chat-based communication and color reports. Resitrader has also grown significantly over the past year, recording a 400% increase in transactions.
Optimal Blue explained it now expects a major expansion in its trading volume over the next year. Currently, more than 50 buyers are active on the new platform, with more than 150 sellers expected to use the platform by the end of the year.
“We are thrilled to join an organization that shares our vision of creating the industry’s premier platform for trading mortgage loans,” Resitrader CEO John Ardy said. “With Optimal Blue’s backing, I expect Resitrader to continue its rapid growth, bringing depth and breadth to the market.”
Ardy and the entire Resitrader team remained on with Optimal Blue upon the close of the transaction.
