ResMae Hurt by $308M in Buybacks

Merrill Lynch asked subprime wholesaler ResMae Mortgage, Brea, Calif., to buy back $308 million worth of loans in December, according to the company's bankruptcy filing.Merrill and several other Wall Street firms -- some of which provided warehouse credit to, or bought mortgages from, the nondepository -- are listed as creditors of ResMae, which ranked 23rd among all subprime funders in the third quarter, according to the Quarterly Data Report. (The lender filed for bankruptcy protection on Feb. 12.) Merrill also is listed as a creditor in recent bankruptcy filings of two other large subprime wholesalers: Mortgage Lenders Network of Connecticut and OwnIt Mortgage of California. According to the The Orange County Register, ResMae has disputes with Merrill over the buybacks, saying the subprime funder believes the buyback period had expired. Merrill's spokesman declined to comment. ResMae can be found on the Web at https://www.resmae.com.