Liberty Bank, Mortgage One to merge

The new company, which will be a division of Liberty Bank, will double the bank’s mortgage operations, according to Liberty Bank President Gary E. Metzger. The merger will be complete by the end of August.

Michael Frerking, president of Springfield-based Mortgage One, will serve as president of Liberty Mortgage, and all Mortgage One staff members will carry over as well.

The merger is a natural move, Metzger said, because each company offsets the other’s weaknesses.

“Mortgage One did a fair amount of FHA and VA financing, which we did very little of,” he said. “We’re looking to expand our retail base of business, and we think the mortgage area, primarily home loans, is a natural expansion.”

Liberty Mortgage won’t have a permanent place of operation until the bank completes construction of its new headquarters, 4625 S. National, at the end of October. Until then, the company will operate out of the bank’s 1414 E. Primose location.

Metzger said the merger will not significantly affect the bank’s assets, currently at $530 million, because most home loans are temporarily housed before being sold into the secondary market. He estimates the new mortgage division will do about $7 million in loans per month.

“We look, over the next two and a half years, to approximately double that size and those numbers of home loans per month,” he said.

Springfield-based Liberty Bank has 13 locations in southwest Missouri, and new branches on West Republic Road and Chestnut Expressway are set to open in 2006.