PennyMac Ordered to Cease and Desist Mortgage Activities in Georgia

The ""Georgia Department of Banking and Finance"":http://dbf.georgia.gov announced Friday that it has issued a final cease and desist order to ""Private National Mortgage Acceptance Co., LLC"":http://www.pnmac.com/ (PennyMac), the company created by several former executives of defunct subprime lender Countrywide Financial back in March of 2008.

The formal ""order to cease and desist"":http://dbf.georgia.gov/vgn/images/portal/cit_79369762/165346029PennyMacCorpAmendedOrder.pdf was issued on November 23, 2010, to PennyMac and its CEO Stanford Kurland, who served as president and COO of Countrywide until October 2006, after the Georgia regulator obtained[IMAGE] [COLUMN_BREAK]

evidence that PennyMac and PennyMac Loan Services, LLC engaged in residential mortgage brokering and lending activities without a license.

Pursuant to Georgia law, it is prohibited for any person to knowingly purchase, sell, or transfer a mortgage loan from or to an entity that is not licensed to engage in residential mortgage brokering or lending.

A spokesperson for PennyMac issued the following statement to DSNews.com regarding the state regulator’s decision: “While PennyMac Corp. and PennyMac Loan Services, LLC disagree with the state of Georgia's conclusion that they were conducting activity which required a license within the state of Georgia, the companies are vigilant about compliance and will continue to make every effort to abide with applicable state and federal laws.”

Both PennyMac and its subsidiary PennyMac Loan Services are headquartered in Calabasas, California. The company was formed at the height of the housing crisis to ""address the dislocations in the U.S. mortgage market,"" according to its Web site. PennyMac buys distressed residential mortgage loans from lenders using capital from private investors. The venture is backed by ""BlackRock Inc."":http://www.blackrock.com/ and ""Highfields Capital Management"":http://www.highfieldscapital.com/.