The Private National Mortgage Acceptance Corp. plans to make a big splash in warehouse lending and late this week unveiled who will lead the effort -- Paul Szymanski, once a top warehouse executive at the number one player in that niche: Bank of America.
At June 30, B of A ranked first nationwide with an estimated $13 billion in warehouse commitments, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.
Szymanski’s hiring by the Calabasas-based PennyMac is effective immediately.
In a statement company president Stan Kurland noted that the publicly traded REIT plans to link its warehouse business to its recently launched correspondent purchase business, which is headed by Doug Jones, who left B of A in June. (At the bank Jones held the title of head of retail sales and institutional mortgage services.)
“Paul is an experienced and highly respected executive who has helped build one of the largest warehouse lending businesses over the past decade,” said Kurland. “Developing the ability to provide warehouse financing to our correspondent business partners creates a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship as part of our long-term strategy for our Correspondent Lending Group. These relationships also will help generate attractive investment assets for PMT at appropriate return levels.”
At press time a B of A spokesman had not returned a telephone call about Szymanski’s departure, which is fueling speculation that the megabank may scale back both its correspondent and warehouse efforts.
Meanwhile, over at B of A, the bank has named Mike Hall to replace Szymanski as the head of its warehouse lending business.
Hall's new role at B of A is warehouse lending, counterparty and loss mitigation executive, and he will report to John Dixon, Institutional Mortgage Services executive, company spokesman Terry Francisco said. Hall has been with B of A since 2003, and was most recently correspondent lending national accounts executive.
In his statement, Francisco said "We are continuing to serve the needs of the warehouse lending market, and Mike will continue to lead our strong performance record with clients, which has earned Bank of America market leadership in warehouse lending."
According to the Quarterly Data Report, B of A is the No. 1 warehouse lender by dollar volume of commitments, at $13 billion, more than double runner-up Wells Fargo at $5 billion.
