Office Closings and Layoffs at First Franklin

One of the top nonprime originators, First Franklin Financial Corp. has responded to deteriorating market conditions by eliminating an undisclosed number of offices and job positions.The North San Jose-based lender confirmed at least one office in San Jose will close, but would not elaborate on the number of employees that would be affected.First Franklin also did not reveal how many of its 28 offices were marked for closure.The wholesale lender is a subsidiary of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., which purchased First Franklin from National City Corp. for $1.3 billion last December.Merrill Lynch also took on National City Home Loan Services and NationPoint as part of the deal.Like many nonprime originators, First Franklin must grapple with dwindling demand on the secondary market for riskier mortgage-backed assets.Last week, First Franklin had more than a billion dollars of their loans originated in 2006 downgraded by Fitch Ratings.In addition to $738 million in classes of 2006-FFA, which were backed by subprime second liens, Fitch lowered another $486 million in various classes of First Franklin production from last year.As part of National City, First Franklin helped its former parent company originate $41.1 million in loans during 2006.Despite the company’s current difficulties, a recent survey conducted by Campbell Communications found that First Franklin remained the nonprime wholesaler that brokers intended to do business with in the future.Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007 by staff