Ixonia Bank acquired Waukesha-based Novus Home Mortgage, a nationwide lender with 18 branches in eight states, the bank announced today.
Under Ixonia Bank, Novus Home Mortgage will operate as a new residential mortgage division with the capacity to lend in all 50 states. This new division will include more than 80 mortgage professionals, allowing Ixonia Bank to extend and diversify its financial services delivery platform.
“We are excited about the opportunity to team up with a talented and successful group of mortgage professionals,” said Dan Westrope, Ixonia Bank chairman and chief executive officer.
The residential mortgage division will be led by Eric Egenhoefer, Novus Home Mortgage president and CEO. Egenhoefer, who’s also a co-managing partner at Panorama Mortgage Group, was previously CEO of Pewaukee-based Waterstone Mortgage Corp. before resigning in 2018.
Waterstone Mortgage is a subsidiary of Wauwatosa-based WaterStone Bank SSB. When Egenhoefer departed, he left to work for an undisclosed private equity firm to build an online mortgage model. However, Waterstone Financial president and CEO Douglas Gordon previously told the BizTimes it would not compete with Waterstone Mortgage.
Egenhoefer launched Novus Home Mortgage in 2019 as a mortgage lender driven by digital solutions. Novus was the latest addition to Panorama’s brands, which includes Alterra Home Loans, Legacy Home Loans and Inspiro Financial.
Novus has had great success in their retail mortgage operation that focuses on purchase transactions, Westrope said. However, Ixonia Bank will also benefit from the mortgage lender’s technology and automation engine used to deliver services to their borrowers, he added.
“It is a capability we didn’t have here,” Westrope said. “We’re going to be the beneficiary of a lot of opportunities that come from this other than a division of our bank is going to serve a mortgage niche at a greater scale than we’re capable of right now.”
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the deal did involve the purchase of several assets including technology solutions as well as leases for Novus offices around the country, Westrope said.
The Novus acquisition marks the latest growth move for Ixonia Bank, which recently opened its seventh branch in Foxconn Technology Group’s North American headquarters building at 611 E. Wisconsin Ave. in downtown Milwaukee.
According to its most recent filings with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Ixonia Bank had 76 employees, $389 million in total assets and $3.8 million in pre-tax income at the end of 2019.
