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Guild Mortgage has announced the acquisition of First Centennial Mortgage, a privately held residential mortgage lender headquartered in Illinois with branches predominantly located in the Midwest. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
First Centennial Mortgage was founded by brothers Steven and David McCormick in 1995. Family-owned, the company serves customers with an extensive portfolio of mortgage products and services, having recently been recognized as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine from 2017–2022.
“We continue to effectively execute our strategy to grow and gain market share through acquisitions where there exists a strong cultural match and the potential for value is present for both parties,” said Terry Schmidt, CEO of Guild Mortgage. “In today’s market, good companies are coming together to do great things where the whole is stronger than the sum of its parts. First Centennial has high-performing local teams with a history of steady growth, and the Guild platform should allow them to accelerate growth and supercharge the good work they are already doing.”
Steven McCormick, president of First Centennial Mortgage, said his company has a similar culture and platform to Guild, focused 100% on retail, local sales, and operational fulfillment. He believes his company’s commitment to the borrower and their satisfaction is the reason for First Centennial’s continued success. It also makes the company a strong fit to align with Guild with a shared commitment to customer service and focus on earning customers for life.
“Guild’s customer for life approach has long been practiced by all of us here at First Centennial,” said McCormick. “For 28 years, we have successfully navigated the ever-changing mortgage industry, never wavering on our commitment to customer service. Joining forces with Guild empowers our teams to continue to thrive and to help build, together, what is sure to be the best platform to serve both our borrowers and associates into the future.”
Headquartered in San Diego, Guild Mortgage is a national lender with an established history of offering a comprehensive array of loan products.
Guild Mortgage was recently recognized as a 2023 Top Guaranteed Rural Housing Lender in the Loan Origination category by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“The rural market is constrained by limited housing supply, much of which is aging single-family housing,” said David Battany, EVP of Capital Markets for Guild Mortgage. “Although small relative to the scale of the multi-trillion-dollar mortgage market, rural housing loans are meaningful lifelines to economic security for the individuals they help and the communities they bolster.”
