First Commercial Buys $1.2B of Servicing

First Commercial Mortgage Co., a subsidiary of the Little Rock, Ark.-based First Commercial Bank, has purchased $1.2 billion in loan servicing rights representing 24,000 mortgages on properties in Arkansas, Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.Jack Fleischauer, chairman and CEO of First Commercial Bank, said the bank's size and the similarities between its portfolio and the one recently acquired made the transaction attractive. First Commercial is merging with Regions Mortgage. Once that merger is completed, the combined portfolios of Regions Mortgage and First Commercial Mortgage will total about $23 billion, making Regions one of the top 35 mortgage servicers in the country.