Gateway Mortgage Group [1] announced it has completed its merger with Farmers Exchange Bank to form Gateway First Bank, an Oklahoma banking corporation.
“This acquisition and resulting transformation is a very important achievement for Gateway,” said Stephen Curry, Gateway’s Chief Executive Officer. “By combining two successful Oklahoma companies to form Gateway First Bank we have created a robust foundation for future growth. Over the next year we intend to deliver significant enhancements to the customer experience and new products, while maintaining the superior service, great culture and nationally-recognized workplace we’re known for.”
To fund the acquisition and support future growth, Gateway First Bank completed an initial closing of a private placement offering, raising approximately $40 million in equity capital. Shapiro Bieging Barber Otteson LLP served as legal counsel to Gateway for the acquisition and the private placement. Sandler O’Neill + Partners, L.P. served as placement agent for the private placement. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP served as legal counsel to the placement agent. Fenimore, Kay, Harrison & Ford, LLP served as legal counsel to Farmers Exchange Bank in the acquisition.
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Calyx Software, [2] announced that its Path loan origination software (LOS) is now integrated with SimpleCECL from LoanScorecard. SimpleCECL combines the proprietary credit and prepayment forecasting model and related analytics from Andrew Davidson & Co., Inc. (AD&Co) with LoanScorecard technology to provide loan-level analysis for Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) and a calculation of the appropriate loan loss reserves to hold, based on the model’s projected lifetime losses for that loan.
Issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, CECL is the new “expected loss” accounting model for estimating the Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses. It replaces the current “incurred loss” model and goes into effect in 2020 for SEC-filing institutions and 2022 for all other financial institutions.
With this integration, financial institutions can seamlessly generate loan-level CECL analysis to ensure accuracy and compliance for all loans originated, including those with a policy exception, as well as an exact calculation for loan loss reserves under the new regulation—all without ever leaving the LOS.
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Blue Water Financial Technologies LLC [3] (Blue Water), the Minneapolis-based provider of asset valuation, MSR distribution, MSR hedging, and electronic solutions to mortgage lenders, has announced the appointment of Joseph A. Grimes III as Senior Advisor.
Grimes will join Blue Water's Advisory Board led by Nicholas Smith, Founder and CEO of Rice Park Capital Management (RPC), Jeff Hilligoss, Senior Advisor to RPC and CEO of Upper Bound, and Brad Farrell, Senior Advisor to RPC and former CFO of Two Harbors Investment Corp.
“Joe brings a strong grasp of counterparty risk and vast experience in structured mortgage servicing and capital markets transactions. Blue Water is configuring itself to bring unique mortgage servicing technology and service solutions to the market and an expansive product set to its clients. Joe’s experiences will assist Blue Water in executing this vision. I’m truly excited to have him engaged with our Advisory Board,” said Alan Qureshi, managing Partner at Blue Water.