Mortgage Banking: No One Ever Leaves, Really.

What's that old F. Scott Fitzgerald line about there being no "second acts" in American lives? I know I've probably misquoted the great author, but I think you get the point.

But in mortgage banking - perhaps more than most financial service sectors - there frequently are second, third and fourth acts. So, maybe old F. Scott wasn't really talking about financial matters.

Yes, old mortgage bankers don't really leave the industry. After they sell their companies to Washington Mutual or Wells Fargo they might retire for a few months, play golf, go the Galapagos Islands, spend some time with the kids and/or grandkids and then lo and behold, they get antsy. They might start out doing some "consulting" work, maybe hook up with a mortgage tech firm, and then the next thing they know they find themselves smack back in the middle of the action - funding and servicing mortgages.

Take Jack Mayesh, an industry veteran known for his shepherding of Long Beach Mortgage, a successful California- based subprime lender. A little more than three years ago Jack sold his company to WaMu. When his non-compete expired this past fall, he began conspiring with some ex-Long Beachers to re-enter the business. In January, he launched ResMAE Mortgage of Brea, Calif., a subprime wholesaler. (Long Beach was a subprime wholesaler.)

Then there's the case of Bill Starkey Sr., who made AccuBanc into a real company, and then sold it to National City a few years back. (AccuBanc was a fairly large servicer as well.) Last I heard Bill was trying to correct his golf slice, but gave up. Guess what? Gray-haired Bill's back too. He recently bought the wholesale arm of Matrix Bancorp in Denver. A friend of Bill's told me: "He just can't stay out of this industry."

Then there's the case of Bill Dallas, a well-known industry sage who sold First Franklin (a nonconfirming lender) to National City. Dallas insists that he's not "back" in the industry, but consider this: He owns a small stake in a Northern California mortgage broker, he runs a mortgage fraud detection company and he's still chairman emeritus of First Franklin.

When I recently called Bill asking him whether it's true he's nosing around a deal or two he swore that no, he had nothing going on. Maybe so, but by the time I got off ...