Mr. Sawyer: Saxon Capital is a two-year-old public company, though the company itself was formed in the late 1980s and has had several private owners. Saxon is one of the largest nonconforming mortgage lenders in the country. Last year total originations exceeded 2.8 billion in volume, and we hold a managed asset portfolio in excess of 8 billion. Saxon lends nationwide in 49 states. We're a portfolio lender. We retain ownership of a majority of our loans and service them in addition to servicing mortgage loans for other people.
TWST: How well have you fared in this low interest rate environment?
What do you see now for interest rates? And what does that mean for the
lending environment, from your perspective?
Mr. Sawyer: We actually look at a modest rise in the interest-rate
environment to be to our advantage. Being a nonconforming lender, we
lend primarily to borrowers who are not served by Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, the government-sponsored agencies. About half of our business comes
from third-party originators, mortgage brokers and mortgage bankers,
whose attention has been very focused on the very high-volume refinance
market over the last three years, and a slight rise in interest rates,
we believe, would contribute to a large decline in that refinance market
and refocus our originators' attentions onto the nonconforming lender
who is not really affected by interest rates, per se, but is affected
more by the need to access the cash equity in their homes.
Tickers included in this excerpt: SAXN
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.