Housing Wire has learned that Dallas-based Concorde Acceptance Corporation, a subprime mortgage banking operation, has stopped funding new loans. The company will shut its doors after funding the loans currently in its pipeline, according to an industry source. Concorde Acceptance operated in 28 states, and was formed in 1997 by the Crown Group, a now-defunct holding company. The lender was originally funded through an exclusive warehouse credit agreement with Banc One Capital Corporation, according to records obtained by Housing Wire. The Crown Group sold its stake in Corcorde to senior management at the lender in 2002 for $5.1 million, and CEO Gilbert Barteau –one of the key executives involved in the purchase — has kept the company privately funded since that time. Available information on Concorde’s loan volume and scope of operation is limited, given its existence as a private company. Company officials were not available to comment on the company’s future at HW’s press deadline.
Concorde is the latest in a growing line of subprime operations to close in 2007, a list that includes Houston-based Funding America, Cleveland-based Deep Green Financial as well as Wachovia’s subprime unit, EquiBanc. More than 12 lenders have shut their doors so far in 2007. The Mortgage Bankers Association said in its forecast for 2007 that it expects “hundreds” of lenders to go out of business this year, a sentiment recently echoed by Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo.
