In a statement released by Grant Waite he reiterated that 'for the first time in history, the mortgage playing field is even. All of the 'side deal's' and other investor/banker incentives that used to be in place are no longer there". We feel that creating a Joint Venture with a Nationally Chartered bank will allow Universal Bancorp to eliminate - at the minimum - one layer in the underwriting process.
Greg Steinaker, founder and C.E.O of Universal Bancorp went on to say that the company has already identified three nationally chartered lending institutions that are able to provide the funding and back end underwriting redundancy that exists in today's mortgage banking environment.
The goal is to create a fully automated website that will not only provide purchase money and refinance lending; but also will exploit targeted markets such as loan modifications, mutual funds, and insurance services. "We have determined that over 30% of customers nationwide that are seeking loan modifications, actually qualify for a straight rate and term refinance." "We feel that this market is untapped".
Universal Bancorp (through it's sister company USBancNet) plan on launching an additional Joint Venture with private equity fund that will purchase both residential and commercial 'toxic deb' at "25 cents on the dollar" and will fully exploit the 6:1 leverage that the RTC and FDIC are providing to registered investors. The funds necessary to get on the 'radar screen' are already in place. The behind the scenes work being completed at this point is the training of seasoned asset managers who have the ability to place a valuation on many of the 'non-traditional' assets that institutions are used to working on.
