Fieldstone Mortgage shuts doors in Springfield

Fieldstone Mortgage is a subsidiary of Fieldstone Invest Corp., a Maryland-based subprime lender that primarily originates, sells and services mortgage loans for home buyers with poor credit.

The local Fieldstone Mortgage office, which operated out of a suite on East Kingsley Street, abruptly closed its doors in recent weeks. The local office is still an active member of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, and has been since February 2004, said Erin Havens, the chamber’s membership services coordinator. Havens said the office had about six employees.

Fieldstone was the lender on nearly 300 deeds of trust filed with the Greene County Recorder of Deeds between May 2001 and July of this year, according to an online search. The last such deed was filed July 25.

According to its Web site, www.fieldstonemortgage.com, the company has “temporarily suspended” its processing of loan applications. A link for brokers states that Fieldstone’s mortgage rates are not available.

“Please check back as we will post rate sheets as soon as we begin processing and locking loans,” it reads.

In July, New York-based Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization LLC – better known as C-Bass – acquired Fieldstone Investment Corp. for $4 a share. C-Bass had initially offered to purchase the company for $5.53 a share in February but revised its offer in March after agreeing to subsidize the cash-strapped lender until the acquisition closed.

C-Bass spokeswoman Lisa Brzezinski in New York did not return calls seeking comment, but she was quoted in an Aug. 2 Baltimore Sun story about Fieldstone’s decision to temporarily suspend loans. Brzezinski told the newspaper that Fieldstone would continue to issue loans on a limited basis, particularly for existing borrowers interested in refinancing adjustable rate mortgages on the verge of resetting at a higher interest rate.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokeswoman Dale Gray said Springfield’s Fieldstone office was closed as part of a corporate downsizing, but she did not know if Fieldstone offices in Overland Park, Kan., also had been closed. Calls to that office were not returned.

“As far as our quality assurance office is concerned, we’re not investigating that office (in Springfield),” said Gray, who works out of HUD’s regional office in Kansas City, Kan. “This was news to us that it had closed.”

Fieldstone Mortgage is an associate member of the Missouri Independent Bankers Association, an organization of locally owned small and medium-size banks. Jennifer Pederson, MIBA’s director of education and administration, said Fieldstone’s membership is valid through 2007.

Pederson said a Fieldstone employee in Kansas recently contacted her about canceling the company’s booth reservation for an upcoming trade show.

Fieldstone’s woes have become the topic of discussion on numerous blogs monitoring the frequent collapse of various subprime lenders. Some of the sites posted what appeared to be an internal memorandum regarding the changes at Fieldstone, which has branch offices in 27 states, according to its Web site.

Rich Weaver, deputy commissioner with the Missouri Division of Finance, said the state has been tracking the trend of mortgage lenders in financial straits in recent months to keep tabs on the number of Show-Me State loans that could potentially be affected.

“Fortunately, we’ve had very few of them that had much of a presence in Missouri,” he said. “We’re talking maybe 30, 40 loans tops. It’s a little baffling to me. … I’ve just been kind of keeping my fingers crossed.”