Deutsche Bank AG said Wednesday it is buying Lake Forest-based mortgage company Chapel Funding LLC.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The buyout comes as talk of investment banks buying mortgage financiers has heated up.
On Monday, Morgan Stanley’s chief executive said his company is looking to buy companies that make and process home loans.
Earlier this month, Merrill Lynch & Co. said it plans to buy a mortgage lender.
Deutsche Bank said it’s buying Chapel Funding to boost its business selling mortgages packaged as bonds to investors on Wall Street.
Chapel Funding makes loans brought to it by brokers in about 40 states. Chief Executive Gordon Stockwell was “a driving force” behind the starting of Chapel Funding, according to the company’s Web site.
Earlier in his career, Stockwell worked for subprime lender Mortgage Portfolio Services Inc. of Dallas, which had a unit in Irvine. Before that he headed Imperial Credit Industries Inc. in Santa Ana Heights.
Orange County could be ripe territory for investment banks looking to buy mortgage companies. The county counts several top subprime lenders to borrowers with imperfect credit as well as traditional mortgage lenders.
