Ideal Mortgage stops home loans via brokers

NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - Ideal Mortgage Bankers Ltd said on Tuesday it will stop offering mortgage loans through brokers, and instead focus on its direct-to-consumer Lend America business.

The Melville, New York-based company said job losses from the closure of its Ideal Mortgage wholesale lending business should be limited to outside account executives. It said it will accept loan submissions until July 31, and honor all commitments.

Ideal said it is the 12th-largest U.S. provider of home loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, citing first-quarter data from the newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance. It said wholesale loans generated about 15 percent of the company's FHA production volume.

The company joins a growing number of large and small U.S. lenders to stop offering home loans through brokers. It said it had offered home loans through brokers for about a year. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)