It’s starting to get a little crowded in the warehouse lending arena these days, or perhaps it only feels that way with more community banks jumping into the sector.
The two latest entrants to warehouse lending include Republic Bancorp of Kentucky, and People’s United Bank, Bridgeport, Conn. (Both are publicly traded.)
The two depositories recently launched warehouse divisions headed by former top executives of National City Bank, which was sold to PNC Bank, Pittsburgh, two years ago. PNC maintained the business for more than a year, but finally pulled the plug last summer even though the business was profitable.
Paul Best, who ran the warehouse group at NatCity/PNC recently joined People’s United, but will work out of Louisville where he was based for PNC.
Kevin Rost was hired a few weeks ago by Republic. He too was a top warehouse executive at PNC, but left shortly after the NatCity deal was completed. Rost confirmed that he was hired but said he couldn’t yet talk about the bank’s new program.
Both these new entrants have yet to extend credit to any nonbanks but are in the process of talking to clients and may announce their first deals shortly.
At the same time, MetLife Bank is about to sign several clients and has been aggressively courting customers, industry officials said.
One warehouse advisor noted that “there are several new players these days and that’s a good thing. A year ago the situation was very different. I just fine it all a little ironic given the fact that rates are rising and volumes could drop soon.”
But the advisor, requesting his name not be used, noted that many of the new entrants are only willing to lend where they have bank branches. National City, on the other hand, was a national lender to nonbanks.
