Los Angeles and San Diego – March 30, 2010 – DebtMarket, the world’s online marketplace for buying and selling whole loan portfolios, today announces its strategic partnership with Education Loan Source (ELS). Through this partnership, ELS offers their clients in the educational finance space access to DebtMarket’s online technology platform where loan portfolios of any size, credit quality and loan performance can be listed. The innovative platform can also establish and negotiate price using an auction-style marketplace, perform due diligence and fund and close transactions. There is no cost to the institution for using the DebtMarket platform until a sale closes.

As the number of student loans has risen by 29% over the last two years, and the outstanding balance of these loans has increased from $422 billion to $527 billion, opportunities are growing for lenders to substantially increase their education lending. The ELS/DebtMarket partnership offers an entirely new approach to managing risk and boosting liquidity.

“This partnership with DebtMarket provides our clients what they have been asking for in the marketplace, but no one has been able to offer,” said ELS CEO, Doug Feist. “An advanced technology-based, secondary marketplace for student loans. We can now offer our schools a much-needed, neutral platform which will allow them to increase portfolio sales and lending capacity.”

“The DebtMarket platform, when paired with the advisory services offered by companies like ELS, helps lenders better understand how to underwrite loans by providing a venue where they can evaluate their true marketplace value,” added DebtMarket co-founder and President Mike Sheridan. “With DebtMarket, lenders can list loans for sale, test the market’s pricing appetite, and conduct negotiations, due diligence and closing all in one place.  Ultimately, we believe that the availability of this fluid secondary market will result in more accurate pricing, greater transaction efficiency at a lower cost, and the ability for lenders to free up funds to make more student loans.”

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About DebtMarket

DebtMarket is the world’s first automated marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of loan portfolios. The innovative DebtMarket technology platform delivers price transparency, process automation and direct buyer/seller communication in a secure online environment. For more information on the DebtMarket transaction process and technology, please visit www.debtmarket.com or call 866-559-4339.

About Education Loan Source, Inc.

Education Loan Source, Inc. (ELS) (www.educationloansource.com) is a nationwide specialty financial services company that provides diversified lending solutions for schools and lenders in the education finance marketplace. The company is based in San Diego, CA and has offices in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. For more information about ELS please call 888-335-6261.

Los Angeles – February 1st, 2010 – DebtMarket, the world’s online marketplace for buying and selling whole loan portfolios, today announced the addition of three leading industry experts. Effective immediately, Stuart McFarland will serve as the Special Advisor for Capital and Federal Markets, and Jim Jones and Bob Feller will join as members of the Board of Directors.

Stuart McFarland previously served as CFO of Fannie Mae, as well as CEO of GE Capital Asset Management Corporation. Stuart has also served as the President and CEO of Pedestal. McFarland’s role will focus on outreach to various branches of government including GSE’s and the FDIC. Stuart will be representing DebtMarket in Washington DC, where he will open a liaison office.

Jim Jones, the former CEO of GMAC’s Residential Capital LLC brings with him over 30 years of management experience in commercial banking, consumer lending, and related financial services. Prior to his role as CEO, Jones served as the president of ResCap’s Residential Finance Group, CEO of Aegis Mortgage, and has also held senior positions at Providian, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. Jim will take a lead role in promoting the firm to marquee names in the residential and commercial mortgage space.

Bob Feller, former Chief Executive Officer of Capmark Financial Group (formerly known as GMAC Commercial Holding Corp) will support DebtMarket’s expansion into additional asset classes. Most recently Bob has served as Pitcairn’s Executive Vice President.

Scott Walchek, Co-Founder and Chairman of DebtMarket, said, “With this considerable boost to our intellectual capital, we will have a much stronger and more diverse offering for both buyers and sellers. Ultimately, building out a team with asset specific knowledge like this, will support the company’s growth objectives as well as the marketplace as a whole.”

“We are excited to bring in three high caliber executives, who will deliver a breadth of invaluable experience to our team,” added Mike Sheridan, Co-Founder and President of DebtMarket. “Jim, Stuart, and Bob will play an integral role at DebtMarket as the company expands its presence in the market, especially in regards to the commercial and residential mortgage space.”

DANVILLE, Calif. and LOS ANGELES – GDNAuto, the automated marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of auto loan portfolios, will operate under the new name DebtMarket, reflecting an expansion into other consumer loans, including mortgages and student loans.

The company also announced a partnership with dealer management software (DMS) provider Frazer Computing to integrate the DebtMarket platform into its offerings, thereby providing dealers with the tools to quickly, easily and securely list their loan portfolios for sale using DebtMarket. Frazer is one of the industry’s largest DMS providers with 5,000 franchised and independent users.

“Offering the DebtMarket platform to our dealer customers at a time when many of them will benefit from the opportunity to sell the auto loans they originate makes perfect sense,” sayid Stewart McFarland of Frazer Computing. “We see DebtMarket as a natural extension of our ongoing efforts to help dealers grow their businesses and increase profitability.”

Dealers using Frazer will be able to generate DebtMarket-compatible loan data anytime they use Frazer DMS software to enter new loans into the system.

“Obtaining complete and accurate loan data is the first step toward listing a portfolio for sale on DebtMarket,” said DebtMarket Co-founder and President Mike Sheridan.  “Simplifying that process will open the door for many more dealers to participate in the sale and purchase of their auto loan portfolios.”

The expanded DebtMarket enables loan originators (primarily banks, credit unions, finance companies and retail operations) or portfolio owners (institutions, hedge funds and private equity investors) to list loans from a broader range of consumer loan asset classes. In addition to auto loans, DebtMarket will handle motorcycles, powersports vehicles, RVs, boats, mortgages and student loan portfolios.

DebtMarket enables participants to establish and negotiate pricing, perform due diligence and complete all the paperwork needed to close the transaction. The end-to-end transaction technology eliminates inefficiencies, reduces costs, and invites participation from buyers and sellers regardless of size, geography or other previous barriers to entry.

“DebtMarket transforms the existing secondary debt market – much as eBay transformed the auction marketplace – by making it safe and easy for dealers, lenders and institutional investors of all types and sizes to participate,” Sheridan said.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 14 (Reuters) – A public online exchange for subprime home and consumer loans opens for business on Friday, aiming to fill a niche by providing open, centralized bidding for investors in packages of smaller debt.

Start-up DebtMarket hopes to do for subprime home and consumer loans what online retailers have done for merchandise, by providing a national platform with open bidding.

DebtMarket, which already runs a website for trading auto loans, hopes to lure banks, funds and other investors ready to buy subprime home and consumer loans at a discount.

‘We thought if we created a big eBay ( EBAY – news – people ) for debt it could create market efficiencies,’ said Chairman Scott Walchek.

Advised by Stuart McFarland, former general manager at GE Capital Mortgage and ex-chief financial officer at Fannie Mae ( FNM – news – people ), DebtMarket took on the challenge of opaque, fragmented markets. It standardized loan information, so its software can assemble portfolios after buyers specify what they are looking for.

‘That is what we really solved,’ said Chief Executive Mike Sheridan. ‘We have standardized the data.’

Its existing auto loans platform has attracted customers Wells Fargo ( WFC – news – people ), JPMorgan’s securitization desk, and ReMark Capital, a unit of Goldman Sachs ( GS – news – people )

DebtMarket’s beta test auto exchange completed loans worth less than $5 million in the past year, of $300 million listed.

The online exchange for consumer and home loans will go up against giant DebtX, which helps the likes of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp sell billions of dollars of distressed loans. DebtX, a nine-year-old venture-backed start-up, runs open debt auctions but not of distressed assets.

‘We believe … (an open bidding platform is) a failed business model for distressed assets and we do not it believe it maximizes the proceeds to the seller,’ DebtX CEO Kingsley Greenland said in Boston, adding they had tried it but results had been poor.

Sheridan acknowledged under 2 percent of loans on his auto platform sold but said a third attracted bids and he expects ‘as we unwrap this you will see a much higher close rate.’

Craig Focardi of TowerGroup, which does consumer loan research, said similar efforts failed years ago, but ‘technology has improved in the last decade such that the model stands a greater chance now.’

(Reporting by David Lawsky; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) Keywords: DEBTMARKET/

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