Home Savings to Drop Brokers of Mortgages

Home Savings of America said Monday that it will leave the wholesale lending business, in which it makes home mortgage loans through independent mortgage brokers.

The flagship savings and loan unit of H.F. Ahmanson & Co. said it will focus instead on making loans through its own nationwide network of more than 500 loan consultants and community loan officers. “We decided wholesale lending did not represent a core lending channel for the company and that over time, loan brokers will not represent a dominant market opportunity for us,” Home Savings said in a statement.

The Irwindale-based company has made about $70 million in single-family mortgage loans through its wholesale channel since starting the program in the fourth quarter of 1995.

Home Savings, with more than $50 billion in assets and $34 billion in deposits, operates 343 financial service centers in four states and 119 mortgage-lending offices in 10 states. Ahmanson stock was unchanged at $23.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.