Street Firm May Enter Warehouse Sector

We continue to hear reports that a large Wall Street firm is laying the ground work to reenter the warehouse lending arena. Supposedly, the firm (whose identity I know but I'm trying to confirm for sure) is also planning the launch of a mortgage conduit as well. Meanwhile, H&R Block's stock price was up almost 8% in trading Friday morning to $13.40. In a conference call yesterday company CEO Alan Bennett shot down rumors that it was going to get hammered by mortgage buybacks. Readers may recall that at one time H&R owned Option One Mortgage Corp., a top ranked subprime lender and servicer. In March 2008 the tax preparation firm sold OOMC to vulture fund investor Wilbur Ross. (The production arm had already been shuttered.) As we all know, just because a company does not exist anymore that doesn’t mean its former owners are off the hook in regard to buybacks, especially of the subprime variety. Bennett said buyback claims are actually improving in regard to OOMC…