WL Ross Adding to Servicing Stake

American Home Mortgage Servicing, the servicing platform of a failed subprime lender that was acquired by turnaround specialist WL Ross in 2007, is buying servicing rights on 185,000 loans from Citi Residential Lending. "With this acquisition, we have increased the number of loans we service to approximately 575,000, an increase of 45%," said David Friedman, CEO of WL Ross. AHMSI was established in April of 2008 and is based in Irvine, Texas. The firm also acquired the servicing assets of Option One, a subprime lender, in 2008. At the end of 2008, the firm serviced more than $85 billion of mostly alt-A and subprime loans. WL Ross is a private equity firm founded by Wilbur L. Ross. The firm currently oversees more than $8 billion in private investments. Citigroup earlier announced plans to dispose of "non-core" assets, including much of its subprime mortgage business.