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Impac restructures business and switches to a broker call centre

Impac Mortgage Holdings has had to change its business strategy many times over the years as it faced market conditions. It is removing third party originations and renouncing its Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac seller/servicer status. Moisio explained that margins are so tight in this market, as a banker. Moisio said that one of the ways they chose to mitigate this current climate was to pivot CashCall into a broker fulfillment model. Impac has not yet released fourth quarter results. The company lost 110 basis points per loan originated in the third quarter. The net loss of $13million was followed by a second quarter loss of $13.5million. Third quarter volume was $62 million. $49.6 million of that was non-qualified mortgages. The wholesale channel was responsible to $28.6 millions of non-QM loans. This was almost all that was generated through that channel. Secondary market pricing issues and pandemics forced Impac to the sidelines. However, the company did more business before COVID. Impac generated $1.52 billion in the first quarter 2020. $261.6 billion of that was wholesale. Impac’s volume in the first quarter of 2020 was $1.3 billion. This was a result of Impac’s retail sales. It was selling any conforming production to aggregators. It also sold most of its servicing rights. Moisio said that having multiple broker outlets allows us to leverage lenders and offer more products and better pricing. It also helps to reduce costs. Back in December, Impac negotiated a buy-out of its lease for $3 million, reducing its office space from 120,000 to 19,000 square feet, both due to the reduced headcount and having a remote/hybrid work environment.Furthermore, as a mortgage broker, Impac will be using technology supplied by the lender, another way it cuts expenses, Moisio said.Even with the switch, Impac will be keeping its mortgage banker licensing and its warehouse lines in place. Moisio stated that it was prudent for institutions to be as efficient as possible, to cut costs, and to continue to be originators when the market turns. This allows us to keep the machine running while also running a very light strategy. “Moisio pointed out that Impac had a controlled shutdown of its wholesale business. It also honored all its commitments to that channel. Impac is now operating under a plan for compliance to regain its stock listing on NYSE American exchange. The company resolved a legacy issue that dates back to the Financial Crisis through an exchange of its Series C preferred stock. Impac closed at 37.4cents per share on March 9, up 0.1 cent from the day before.