More than 50 employees from a net branch operation that failed earlier this month have been picked up by one of Atlanta’s largest community banks. The chairman of their new parent said the mortgage operation was a good cultural fit for the institution.
On Jan. 7, Sunshine Mortgage Corp. ended all loan fundings. The company was based in the Atlanta suburb of Smyrna, Ga.
Employees at 19 branches were notified by e-mails from Sunshine Chief Executive Officer Fred Powell that the company had failed to obtain an increased line-of-credit because of insufficient operating capital.
But a nearby bank saw an opportunity in the Sunshine’s demise.
| Atlanta-based Fidelity Bank has hired around 55 Sunshine employees, James B. Miller, chairman of parent Fidelity Southern Corp., told MortgageDaily.com in an interview. Around 36 of the new hires are originators, while the rest are back-office positions.
Miller said the Atlanta-based bank started boosting its mortgage operations about six months ago. He learned of Sunshine’s collapse about two days after it occurred. Four banks made competing subsequent presentations to the Sunshine employees — who ultimately chose Fidelity because it is “the biggest little community bank in Atlanta,” Miller said. The decision enabled the originators to remain relatively large fish in a smaller pond. “They were a very conservative mortgage operation and we are a pretty conservative bank,” he said. “Cultures matched well, and it’s a basically fairly conservative culture. Sunshine was not caught up in the subprime stuff. “And, of course neither were we.”
|
Fidelity Southern photo of James Miller
|
The employee additions bring to around 75 the number of mortgage employees at Fidelity, which claims to be “one of the largest community banks in metro Atlanta.”
Miller expects loan originations go from just a few million dollars a month before they picked up the employees to around $17 million monthly. The pipeline from the first week of activity was $20 million.
“They do in fact fit our culture profile,” Miller added. “I have been out going to various functions and so many people know these people. And they keep coming up to me and telling me what good people they are first, and then what good mortgage people they are second.”
Related:
Another Net Branch Operation Closes
Managers of the 19 branches operated by one of Georgia’s largest mortgage companies are scrambling to find a new home — with one potential suitor reportedly considering a deal. The collapse brings to eight the number of branch operations to fail since last year.
