Oak Street Mortgage's Debt Collection Venture Helps it Win Fastest Growing Company

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Achieving a phenomenal 2,112-percent revenue growth from fiscal year 2000 to 2002, Oak Street Mortgage was recently named the Indianapolis Business Journal’s fastest-growing Indianapolis area private company.

“The key to our success is really very simple,” stated Steve Alonso, Chairman and CEO of Oak Street Mortgage LLC(SM). “We focus on our employees and our customers. We focus on our employees by hiring the best and giving them the environment and opportunity to achieve their best. We focus on our customers by providing them excellent, customer-driven service. Our customers are ‘middle America’ — good, solid citizens. We’re pleased we’ve been able to help so many people.”

As a young company with deep roots in the mortgage business, Oak Street is an uncommon combination of sound financial practices and innovative ways of operating. Founded in 1999 by Steve Alonso, former president of Bank One Consumer Financial Services, Oak Street has built a mortgage lending business from the ground up, investing in the industry’s best technology, people, and processes. At the same time, the company has partnered with strong, mid-sized mortgage lenders to capitalize on efficiencies of scale while developing niche markets and targeted customer segments.

Oak Street Mortgage LLC is also becoming one of the fastest-growing financial services firms. In April this year, after announcing its plan to create a financial services business model that would be sustainable over the long term, Oak Street embarked on a joint venture in mid-August with Hudson & Keyse, Inc., a Painesville, Ohio retail/commercial debt recovery service. Shortly following on August 29, Oak Street launched Oak Street Funding, a new financial services business to provide business development loans to insurance professionals.

Oak Street continues to see its product offerings and mortgage loan pipeline staying strong. “We have many products, many channels and established relationships with our customers,” stated D. Scott Clarke, Oak Street Mortgage Executive Director of Business Development. “As industry veterans, we understand that, even for the best in this field, mortgage lending can be a cyclical business. We have diversified the company in order to leverage our position and ensure long term sustainability.”

With the new diversified service structure, Oak Street provides financial services to corporations, investors and individuals. Oak Street Mortgage LLC enables homeowners to reach their financial goals — from home loans, to refinancing, to debt consolidation. Oak Street Mortgage now spans 24 states and expects to originate $2.0 billion in mortgage loans by year-end. Additional information may be found at www.oakstreetmortgage.com. Oak Street is headquartered near Indianapolis at 11595 N. Meridian, Suite 400, Carmel, Indiana, 46032.