Irwin Financial completes exit from conventional mortgage banking

Irwin Financial Corp. has sold its conforming conventional mortgage servicing portfolio for $261 million as part of a strategy to exit the conventional mortgage banking business and concentrate on commercial and nonconforming consumer mortgages.

The sale, to four independent investors, follows last month's $275 million sale of Irwin Financial's conforming mortgage production assets to Freedom Mortgage of Mount Laurel, N.J.

In that deal, Freedom Mortgage acquired nearly 40 offices operated by Irwin Financial's subsidiary, Irwin Mortgage Corp., in the Southeast, Midwest, Arizona and Florida, plus mortgage loans held for sale and associated hedges. Irwin Mortgage retained liability for pending litigation and other obligations "arising outside the ordinary course of business," Columbus, Ind.-based Irwin said in a press release.

With the sale of its conforming mortgage servicing portfolio, the company can now turn its "full attention to the growth of our profitable and growing commercial segments and to making improvements in our nonconforming mortgage segment," said Irwin Financial's chief executive officer, Will Miller.

Miller said that the negotiated sales of Irwin's conventional mortgage banking business allowed the "vast majority" of Irwin Mortgage employees to keep their jobs.

In a Feb. 10 Inman News article, Irwin Mortgage was described as being on "the bleeding edge" of the move to paperless, electronic mortgage processing.

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