Servicer of Private Notes Launches NPL Trading Site

FCI Lender Services of California, the largest servicer of privately held real estate notes, has launched a new online trading platform designed to match sellers of distressed mortgages with buyers. Company EVP Gordon Albrecht said the site -- dubbed FCI Exchange LLC -- is now operational. "Right now we have 2,500 loans, with about $470 million in principal up there," he said. FCI joins such existing online platforms as BigBidder.com and LoanExchange.com as sites where buyers can hunt for product. "Ours is a trading platform, not an auction site," Albrecht cautioned. "We're the first trading platform run by an actual servicer of loans." Websites that cater to loan trading -- be it nonperforming notes or not -- tend to be marketing tools as opposed to a place where trades actually take place. "The problem with most of these websites is that after you make a bid you need a lot of handholding and that occurs offline, not online," said one investor who has used both LoanExchange and BigBidder. FCI said it will not charge firms to list their loans and will only get paid if an NPL trades, a strategy used by the other two.