Tidalwave Acquires Seasons' Servicing.(Brief Article)

Tidalwave Holdings here has acquired the assets of Seasons Mortgage Group, Richmond, Va., including its servicing operation and subservicing contracts on $100 million of residential loans.

The SMG servicing platform managed loan administration on over $2.3 billion of conforming, jumbo, Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Affairs and Small Business Administration guaranteed loans as recently as last year.

While the servicing platform was acquired intact by Tidalwave, just over $100 million in servicing rights were included in the transaction.

SMG's two major shareholders, president Raymond "Buddy" Sanders and senior vice president Ruth Hipp assumed the titles of executive vice president for servicing operations and senior vice president for servicing operations, respectively, for Tidalwave's First American Mortgage Securities subsidiary.

Tidalwave said it anticipated that all of the current employees will be retained. In addition, Mr. Sanders was named to the executive committee of Tidalwave's First American Mortgage Securities Division.

Edward Bache, managing director of First American Mortgage Securities, said the SMG acquisition "completes a major piece of the FAMS puzzle, as it allows FAMS to retain servicing on both institutional private placements and mortgage backed security issues, where the company plans to utilize credit enhancements to achieve an 'investment' rating."

The company said it is redesigning its business model with the intent of originating retail and wholesale loans, pooling the loans into securities and retaining the servicing rights. The company's product matrix will ...