Gateway Funding Protects Itself against Mortgage Fraud; MBA Chairman's Company Enters Relationship with The Prieston Group

Business Wire, Nov 28, 2005

NOVATO, Calif. -- Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services will protect and insure its loans against mortgage fraud through an innovative suite of services offered by The Prieston Group, the two companies announced today.

TPG Mortgage Assurance Solutions(SM) is designed to help lenders significantly reduce the incidence of mortgage fraud through the implementation of defined processes and procedures. The fraud reduction aspects are complemented with insurance, which helps mitigate losses in the event of a repurchase request for financial misrepresentations made to the lender.

Gateway, headed up by its President and MBA Chairman Regina Lowrie, is a rapidly growing lender based in Horsham, Penn. The company, which has 55 offices and lends in 42 states, has doubled its size within the last three years. Gateway handles all three channels of business: retail, wholesale and correspondent.

"This partnership with The Prieston Group will allow us to continue to grow our company with the confidence of having the fraud-loss insurance," Lowrie said. "Additionally, the training and education TPG provides is top-notch and is one of the main reasons we decided to do business with them."

Only TPG Approved Lenders have access to TPG's innovative suite of services. Before certifying lenders as being TPG Approved, The Prieston Group conducts due diligence reviews of the lenders themselves. TPG evaluates lenders on the strength of their team, the consistency and rigor of their QC processes, repurchase history, training programs and their standing in peer-to-peer reviews, all through a patent-pending process. Lenders must commit to meeting the highest professional standards for quality, integrity and performance to earn the exclusive TPG Approved Lender designation.

"The primary focus of the TPG solution is on lenders' business practices," said Arthur Prieston, chairman of The Prieston Group. "By providing the training, tools, resources, experience, and expertise to improve those practices, we believe our clients experience lower fraud incidence rates, improved quality production, and enhanced professional reputations and investor relationships. The net result of this process is to drastically reduce the number of repurchase requests resulting from fraud."

When a repurchase request does occur, the insurance component of the suite steps in to address the financial loss a lender may suffer. TPG Approved Lenders also have access to legal remedies that mitigate losses and go after the perpetrators directly.

In addition to the benefits provided by TPG's training, insurance and legal remedies, TPG Approved Lenders also have access to the latest information on mortgage fraud through monthly teleconference calls, newsletters, online training programs, a dedicated website and an innovative, industry-standard-setting web log.

About Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services

Regina Lowrie founded Gateway in 1994 with seven employees, $1.5 million in startup capital and 1,200 square feet of office space. Now, the company has more than 800 employees, is Greater Philadelphia's largest independent mortgage company and has offices spanning the East Coast from New England to Florida. Gateway has 55 offices and lends in 42 states. Last year, the company closed $3 billion in originations.

About The Prieston Group

The Prieston Group is a diversified risk management consulting company. It offers the only fully integrated suite of mortgage fraud protection, mitigation, and indemnification services in the industry. Called TPG Mortgage Assurance Solutions(SM), these services provide lender due diligence and data integrity, fraud loss insurance and repurchase protection, and legal consultation for loss mitigation and recovery. Founded in 1986, TPG offers the proprietary Lender Representation & Warranty Insurance (Pat. Pend.), which protects more than 750 lenders and more than $67 billion in residential loans to date. TPG has been an industry leader in fighting mortgage fraud, supporting lenders, aggregators, investors, and issuers, as well as working closely with rating agencies, industry representatives, and government and legislative agencies. For more information about The Prieston Group, please visit www.priestongroup.com.