A New (Interim) Top-Man at Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae named Hugh Frateras as interim chief executive officer. The appointment will be effective on Oct. 16, 2018, subject to final FHFA approval.

"I have great respect for Fannie Mae and the significant role it plays in our housing system," said Frater. “I look forward to working alongside the leadership team as we continue to look for new ways to serve our customers, implement our strategy and strengthen the company." He will succeed Timothy Mayopoulos, who announced his intention to depart in July 2018 and will leave the company on Oct. 15, 2018.

Frater has served on Fannie Mae's board since 2016. He has held a number of executive and management roles throughout his career. Frater currently serves as Vereit’s non-executive chairman of the board and as a director of ABR Reinsurance Capital Holdings. He previously led Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, a national commercial real estate company, which provides comprehensive capital solutions and investment sales advisory and research services for multifamily and commercial properties.

He served as chairman of Berkadia from April 2014 to December 2015, and he served as CEO of Berkadia from 2010 to April 2014.

M&A

• BancorpSouth Bank completed its merger with Icon Capital Corp., including subsidiary Icon Bank of Texas. Icon operates seven full-service banking offices in the Houston market, and two approved but unopened full-service banking offices will open as BancorpSouth offices in the next few months. BancorpSouth operates two full-service banking offices, as well as a mortgage loan production office, and a regional insurance office in the market.
• LoanLogics and Optimal Blue formed a strategic partnership aimed at delivering a real-time integration between LoanLogics’ LoanHD Correspondent Lending platform and Optimal Blue’s product eligibility and pricing platform. In conjunction with the partnership, Optimal Blue has acquired LoanLogics’ product, pricing, and eligibility technology business, LoanDecisions. Financial details were not disclosed.

VC Funding

• Cherre, a real estate data platform, closed a $9 million seed funding round led by Navitas Capital. Cherre provides large enterprises, insurance companies, banks and investors with a platform to collect, augment, and resolve property data in real-time from thousands of public, private, and internal sources, allowing them to evaluate investment and underwriting opportunities in a more more accurate and efficient manner than ever before. In addition to Navitas Capital, the funding round was also joined by Carthona Capital, iLookabout, Dreamit Ventures, and Red Swan Ventures. Pre-seed investors in Cherre included Recursive Ventures, Sarona Ventures, Wharton Angel Group, Harvard Angel Group, New York Angels and Angel Investor Forum.