NetMore America Impacted By Credit Crunch

NetMore America Inc., Walla Walla, Wash., is the latest mortgage lender to be affected by the lack of funds available to originate loans, although the company is still bullish on its growth prospects for 2009. Mark Freedle, president and chief executive of NetMore commented in a statement, "NetMore is giving priority to purchase transactions which will still be handled within five days and is curtailing its focus refinances for a time. Last week we realigned our staffing in line with the ongoing credit crisis and lack of access to growth capital. We reduced our overall number of employees by about 20 or less than 10% of our total of over 200 employees. We regret taking this action because it impacts dedicated and talented people whose work we value. However, it was a necessary step given the current environment impacting the mortgage industry. Such as, one, the reduced number of warehouse lenders offering credit lines even to responsible and growing lenders such as NetMore; and two, the difficulty of accessing growth capital due to the disruption in the capital markets. We will still be funding between $85-100 million a month of high quality FHA and agency loans, which at this rate would double our 2008 closings, and we will increase this level once the credit and capital markets return to normal."