Sterling Bancorp, a financial holding company based in New York City and the parent company of Sterling National Bank, has announced the launch of a new mortgage warehouse lending business to serve the financing needs of the residential mortgage banking industry as the U.S. housing market recovers. Known as Sterling Warehouse Lending Group, the new division will provide funding to highly qualified mortgage banking firms from the time of closing until the mortgages are sold.
"Our new warehouse lending operation is an excellent example of our strategies to deploy the capital from our recent common stock offering to grow our core business," noted Sterling Bancorp's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Louis J. Cappelli. "Warehouse lending is a natural extension of our business, drawing upon Sterling's demonstrated strengths in both asset-based financing and mortgage banking."
Sterling Warehouse Lending Group will focus on serving established mortgage banking firms and will concentrate primarily on warehouse facilities secured by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) residential loans.
The company is building a team of experienced warehouse lending professionals to work with its existing personnel in maximizing the opportunities for this business. In this regard, Gary Timmerman has joined as senior vice president and managing director of Sterling Warehouse Lending Group. Timmerman has more than 20 years of executive experience in bank warehouse lending.
"Warehouse lending has historically been a successful product for a number of banks," said Cappelli. As the housing market has now begun to show signs of stabilizing, we see an opportunity to apply Sterling's capital, experience and market knowledge to fill this financing need and generate solid returns on our investment in the warehouse business. In keeping with our traditional disciplined and prudent approach, our focus will be on financing only the most qualified, experienced and successful mortgage banking firms."
For more information, visit www.sterlingbancorp.com.
