Fortes Acquires Nat City Wholesale Offices

Fortes Financial Inc., San Diego, has acquired five regional wholesale offices formerly affiliated with National City Mortgage Corp., Miamisburg, Ohio. Fortes Financial was founded in August of 2007 by Peter J. Levasseur, president and chief executive, and Janice M. Ibey, executive vice president and chief operating officer, with the backing of a private equity firm. Mr. Levasseur held the same positions at ITT Mortgage Corp., while Ms. Ibey was most recently director of capital markets for Finance America LLC. The acquired offices are located in San Diego, Dallas, Chicago, Fredrick, Md., and Atlanta. Mortgage Search & Acquisition, played an integral role in the transaction. MSA's president, Tami Coffey, commented, "Fortes engaged us to identify potential retail or wholesale groups that fit within their corporate profile; we felt that the National City team was a quality, productive entity that would work well under the Fortes umbrella." Mr. Levasseur added "We have grown the company through recent investments into the retail and reverse mortgage sectors and feel that the addition of a high quality wholesale division such as the National City team represents, will help us ascertain not only diversification but also the ability to acquire a substantial market share offering endless upward opportunity going forward."