INDUSTRY VETERANS RE-UNITE TO LAUNCH ALLON HILL WITH A PLAN TO RE-INVENT MORTGAGE DUE DILIGENCE

New venture blends deep industry experience and an analytical approach powered by cutting-edge technology, aiming to return confidence to mortgage markets

Sept. 25, 2008 - Mortgage veterans Sue Allon and Daniel Gallery today announced the formation of Allon Hill, a new type of mortgage due diligence provider focused on helping clients understand, manage and reduce risk, and improve returns through highly informed whole loan trade and bond buying decisions. The company will be based in Denver, Colo.

Allon Hill will deliver a variety of analytical, advisory and consulting services to clients including hedge funds, mutual funds, private investors, government agencies, ratings agencies and mortgage originators and service providers. The primary business line is due diligence, with specialties in seasoned performing and non-performing loan reviews and quality control for agency delivery.

Allon also said her company has acquired Edison Mortgage Decisioning Solutions, a leading provider of due diligence and data and analytics reporting. Edison’s assets, including its staff of experienced mortgage analysts and its proprietary due diligence technology, will become part of Allon Hill’s service delivery model.

“The events of the past year have shown the catastrophic consequences of a fundamentally flawed mortgage due diligence model, which must be re-invented to bring back confidence and liquidity to the market,” Allon said. “Due diligence must evolve from a report to support a loan purchaser’s pricing decision to a disclosure document on which investors and others can rely. It’s time for due diligence to become a high value-added, insight-driven assessment of risk, rather than a superficial report on loan file contents.”

Allon, who will serve as chief executive of Allon Hill, founded The Murrayhill Company, a premier third-party credit risk management firm, during the mid 1990s. Gallery, another Murrayhill veteran, will serve as Allon Hill’s president.

Allon Hill’s mortgage analysts will take an auditor’s approach to due diligence, using an industry-leading technology platform formerly known as “ICE,” or Integrated Credit Engine, acquired from Edison. The web-based system automates the data download function, employs risk-filtering technology, minimizes the potential for data duplication and error, and permits loan buyers real-time access to view the data throughout the transaction.

“Getting the mortgage market moving again will require a level of expert care in planning and executing due diligence assignments that hasn’t existed before now,” Gallery said. “Our approach will be a departure from the past, and it’s a necessary departure. Investors must demand analytical expertise, independence and value-added insights, along with a disciplined process that leverages technology to deliver more efficiently. All of this adds up to value, and that’s what we intend to deliver.”