First Financial Network selling $190-million in loans

First Financial Network selling $190-million in loans

An undisclosed Florida bank is looking to unload a lot of its Gulf Coast mortgage risk. Oklahoma City-based loan-sale advisor First Financial Network has announced a $190-million portfolio offering of commercial, ADC (acquisition development and construction) and land loans secured by property stretching from Sarasota to Naples.

The offering, scheduled to end on Dec. 9, features a total of 60 loans grouped together into 24 pools. Three-quarters of the total portfolio is nonperforming — 60 days or greater past due.

Investors can see the underlying property and terms of the mortgage in each pool after signing a confidentiality agreement, according Merrie Duncan, marketing director with First Financial Network. Closings are scheduled for Dec. 18.

“We are defiantly seeing more banks interested in having loans offered in the private marketplace, particularly commercial real estate loans,” Duncan says. “Banks have also become much more realistic about pricing. We have another big one coming on behalf of another bank this quarter, and another bank next quarter.”

Asked to quantify how much demand has increased from banks wanting to unload their assets on the private market, Duncan initially said it had doubled, but later said that it was probably significantly more than that.