Cornerstone Mortgage Co. of Little Rock, the largest independent mortgage company in Arkansas, is closing its operations this month, and staff members are joining IberiaBank Mortgage Co.
Michael Powell, who co-founded Cornerstone Mortgage in 1999, has joined IberiaBank Mortgage as executive vice president and production manager.
“He grew that company to be a formidable player in the mortgage field in and around the Little Rock area,” said Chuck Quick, president of Little Rock’s IberiaBank Mortgage. “He also expanded the business out into Fort Smith, Wynne and Paragould. He was a premier lender when it came to rural development loans.”
Cornerstone’s office at 300 S. Shackleford Road in west Little Rock will become a branch operation of IberiaBank Mortgage. Cornerstone will close at the end of November.
The move reflects the consolidation pressures smaller lenders are facing with more regulator requirements and increased costs to comply.
“Even with a company our size, we’re looking at regulator requirements and meeting all types of mandates,” Quick said. “We have had to put together a fairly significant compliance department. It’s very expensive to do that.”
Powell, four loan officers and three support staff have already joined IberiaBank Mortgage.
“We’ve been talking with Michael on and off the last year,” Quick said. “He has done well and remained a profitable company.
“We wanted his expertise and knowledge to continue to grow our company, not only in Arkansas but all over our market area.”
IberiaBank Mortgage operates 64 locations in 12 states, with annualized mortgage loan origination volume of more than $2 billion.
“With IberiaBank Mortgage, we’ll have significant resources to draw upon and we’ll have the financial strength and backing of one of the strongest bank holding companies in the country, IberiaBank Corp.,” Powell said.
Based in Lafayette, La., publicly traded IberiaBank operates 277 combined offices, including 184 bank branch offices in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Texas and Florida, and 22 title insurance offices in Arkansas and Louisiana.
Sign up for Daily E-news
