Movement Mortgage agrees to acquire New England-based Mortgage Network

National retail lender and servicer Movement Mortgage has reached an agreement to purchase New England-based Mortgage Network.  

With this deal, Movement will add over 30 Mortgage Network branches in 12 Eastern states to the company. Headquartered in Danvers, Massachusetts, Mortgage Network is licensed in 27 states.

Movement plans to retain Mortgage Network's personnel and incorporate that business with its own retail operations. The move is expected to add $2 billion in mortgage volume annually; n 2021, a record year for the mortgage industry, Mortgage Network funded $4.2 billion, according to its website. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We want to grow, and we look for teams and individuals in alignment with Movement's mission," said Movement Mortgage CEO Casey Crawford in a press release.

Licensed in all 50 states, Movement currently operates more than 550 branch locations. The company generated approximately $33 billion in originations last year, making it one of the top 10 retail lenders. The transaction marks the second recent Northeast acquisition for Indian Land, South Carolina-based Movement after a purchase of brokerage Superior Rate Mortgage of New England in August. 

Both Movement and Mortgage Network also expanded their respective New England footprints in October, with branch openings or hirings of new loan officers in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

"After 34 years of building the Mortgage Network family, it was time to find a new home for my team," said CEO Robert McInnes, who co-founded the company in 1988 along with Albert Pare.

Houlihan Lokey served as financial advisor and Pierce Atwood as legal advisor to Mortgage Network for the deal. Troutman Pepper was the legal advisor to Movement Mortgage.

This transaction follows Movement's addition of several new executives to its leadership team, including a new chief growth officer, chief people officer and director of coaching, all appointed over the summer. More recently, the company named technology veteran Lyra Waggoner, formerly of Caliber Home Loans, as chief information officer. 

The deal between the two lenders is the latest in what many industry experts predict to be an active season for mergers and acquisitions, as loan volumes continue to contract significantly compared to levels from a year ago. Housing researchers expect the slowdown to continue into next year, while mortgage advisory firm Stratmor Group recently forecasted close to 50 M&A transactions to be announced before the end of 2022 across all segments of the industry, including lending, servicing and technology.

Deals involving loan originators announced since September alone include the sale of Angel Oak Home Loans' retail operations revealed this week, Marlin Mortgage Holdings' purchase of LoanFront and Thrive Mortgage's acquisition of American Mortgage Service Co.