LAGUNA HILLS, Calif., July 1, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Fortes Financial, Inc. is pleased to announce the official launch of Fortes Residential Mortgage, their nationwide independent mortgage banking enterprise. Fortes Financial is headquartered in Laguna Hills, CA. Its residential mortgage business is headquartered in San Diego, CA, and has five regional wholesale operations centers, three retail banking offices and eight reverse mortgage branches that operate under the name of Security One Lending.
Fortes Residential is a conventional and government lender utilizing state of the art technology, providing faster customer service in a virtually paperless environment.
With the backing of a private equity firm, Fortes Financial was founded in August of 2007 by Peter J. Levasseur, President and CEO, and Janice M. Ibey, Executive Vice President and COO, and began executing its strategy of capitalizing on opportunities arising from a market in disarray. Near the end of the first quarter of 2008, Fortes acquired the assets of a retail mortgage banking platform, originating both forward and reverse mortgages, and then assumed a significant part of National City Bank's wholesale origination operation. Fortes Financial currently has over 400 employees.
In June 2008, Fortes Financial announced its agreement to merge with Vision Global Solutions, Inc. a publicly reporting company trading on the Pink Sheets. It is anticipated that the merger will be completed by the end of August 2008, and Fortes will be the surviving operating entity.
"I believe we are in a market that is significantly oversold which has, and will continue for a period of time, to provide Fortes the opportunity to acquire mortgage origination assets at little or no premium," said Mr. Levasseur. "With low historical residual risk, access to the public capital markets and a strong management team, we are extraordinarily well positioned to emerge as a top tier mortgage originator," he continued.
This press release does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale. All statements contained in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are based on our current plans and expectations, and they involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future events or results to be different than those described in or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include those relating to: market acceptance of our products and services; length of sales and implementation cycles for our products and services; our relationships with customers and strategic partners; difficulties in integrating acquired businesses; changes in economic, political or regulatory conditions or other trends affecting the mortgage finance and real estate lending industries; and our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel. Except as required by applicable laws or regulations, we do not undertake any obligation to update our forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.