National City Mortgage 'White Knight' Goes Down

Mortgage banker Fortes Financial of Dallas, which had hoped to grow its business by purchasing lending divisions jettisoned by struggling banks, has closed its doors, MortgageWire has learned. The brain child of industry veteran Peter J. Levasseur, Fortes, bought five regional wholesale divisions from National City Mortgage back in July. (NCM's parent bank exited the wholesale business this summer and is now in the process of being sold to PNC Bank of Pittsburgh.) At press time Mr. Levasseur could not be reached for comment. With the backing of private equity money, he founded Fortes in the summer of 2007 along with Janice Ibey. At one point the non-bank lender had 400 employees. The wholesale offices Fortes bought from NCM were located in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Frederick, Md., and San Diego. During his career Mr. Levasseur has worked for subprime lenders AMRESCO Residential and American Business Financial Services, and prime firms including Home Savings of America and ITT Diversified Financial.