Ideal Exiting Wholesale Biz

Ideal Mortgage Bankers Ltd., Melville, N.Y., is exiting its wholesale lending business, which operates under the name Ideal Mortgage, to concentrate on expanding Lend America, its retail lending platform. The company specializes in doing Federal Housing Administration products. "After conducting an extensive review of our wholesale operations and taking into consideration the inherent risk in the current environment and the direction of the mortgage industry, we have decided to exit the wholesale lending business after approximately a year in operation," said Michael Ashley, chief business strategist. "Our core competency has historically been as a direct-to-consumer retail lender, which is validated by the enormous success over the last two years of Lend America, our rapidly growing retail platform." Job losses as a result of the closing will be limited to outside account executives, Ideal said. Many employees will be redeployed within Lend America. Ideal said it will accept submissions until July 31, and will honor all commitments and close its wholesale pipeline in the normal course of business. The company can be found online at https://www.idealmb.com.