Commercial: Prudential Will Pursue Third-Party Servicing Role.(Brief Article)

Prudential Asset Resources, the commercial mortgage servicing arm of Prudential Insurance Company of America, plans to offer its servicing expertise to third-party lenders.

Having gained approval as a commercial mortgage servicer from all three major rating agencies, the company is poised to expand into servicing of loans pooled into commercial mortgage-backed securities as well as loans that Prudential holds in its own portfolio.

Industry veteran Ann Hambly heads Prudential Asset Recovery as a managing director.

Prudential, already one of the 10 largest commercial mortgage servicers, made a strategic decision that it wants to be a key player in commercial mortgage servicing, Ms. Hambly said. Ms. Hambly, who previously led commercial mortgage servicing shops for firms such as GE Capital, Nomura's Capital America unit and Bank of New York, was hired to lead Prudential's new servicing effort last June. Prudential makes a wide variety of commercial mortgage loans, including loans funded through Fannie Mae, the Federal Housing Administration programs and Prudential's general account. The company also does mezzanine lending and participates in the CMBS world. Early last year, Prudential Mortgage Capital expanded its servicing expertise by acquiring the WMF Group, a major multifamily lender.

"We can actually service all of our own loans that we originate through any capital source," Ms. Hambly said.

She said Prudential is not concerned by the ...