Loan Auction Pioneer Eyes New Markets

Precept, a company that pioneered an online loan auction system for the commercial mortgage industry, is now looking at new business avenues, MortgageWire has learned.Precept, set up at the tail end of the dot-com boom, had hoped to differentiate itself by providing an underwriting opinion up front to lenders who would participate in an online auction process. The dot-com had attracted investment from industry leaders such as Standard & Poor's (the rating agency provided an underwriting opinion as well) and Morgan Stanley. Precept had hoped to make the commercial mortgage lending market more efficient with its online auction process. The company is now looking at getting into another arena of the commercial mortgage financing industry, such as mezzanine lending, according to Jack Cohen, chief executive officer of the Chicago-based Cohen Financial, who is also a Precept board member. Precept was set up by Frank Scavone and others from Nomura Securities' commercial mortgage lending group.