People's United Bank, Bridgeport, Conn., late last week confirmed that warehouse lending veteran Paul Best has joined the publicly traded thrift as a senior vice president in its commercial division.
Best will head the thrift's new warehouse lending effort. He joins People's from PNC Bank, which this past fall closed its warehouse unit. Best joined the Pittsburgh-based PNC when the bank bought National City Bancorp, Cleveland, in late 2008.
Initially, PNC kept the warehouse division open and operating, but decided to shutter the unit early last year, even though it was profitable. PNC never gave much detail on why it did not like the warehouse business, except to say that it did not fit into the bank's business plan.
Best stayed with PNC until late 2010 as its remaining warehouse lines expired. In early December National Mortgage News reported that he was leaving PNC and joining People's but there was no official confirmation of the hiring until recently.
NatCity, until PNC bought it, ranked among the top five warehouse lenders in the nation.
Over the past six months several community and regional banks have moved into the warehouse space, filling the void left by PNC/NatCity.
