IndyMac grabs isle First Magnus workers
IndyMac Bank is picking up isle employees of a second Hawaii mortgage operation that had been closed in the wake of the industry's mainland woes.
The bank, based in Pasadena, Calif., is hiring employees left behind by the closure of First Magnus, which did business here through its retail lending arm, Charter Funding of Hawaii.
David Quandt, Charter's vice president and regional manager, said while no contracts have been signed, close to 100 former First Magnus employees have agreed to go to work for IndyMac Bank.
"IndyMac Bank is trying to secure leases in all of Hawaii," said Quandt. "It's good news for all of us."
First Magnus Financial Corp. of Tucson, Ariz. shut down operations in the middle of this month, citing the collapse of the secondary mortgage market.
Charter Funding had seven offices in Hawaii, including three on Oahu, two on the Big Island, one on Maui and one on Kauai.
Earlier this month, IndyMac Bank hired about 40 loan officers and staff members formerly working for the New York-based American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., which also shut down its five offices in the state.
Nationally, IndyMac Bank, the principal subsidiary of IndyMac Bancorp Inc., said it has also hired more than 600 former retail lending professionals from American Home Mortgage, and anticipates it will hire between 150 to 200 more.
The new employees will be hired for IndyMac Bank's Retail Lending Group, and are expected to generate quarterly production of about $1 billion for the company once they are fully integrated.
"We're looking at all the states," said Meg Wade, IndyMac's director of investor relations. " We're very focused on building our retail platform, which is consumer direct, since the vast majority of our business comes through broker channels."
The closure of national companies has become the perfect opportunity for IndyMac, said Wade.
IndyMac Bank bills itself as the 7th largest savings and loan in the nation.