1st Metropolitan Positions Itself for Continued Growth; Privately Owned Brokerage Focuses on Low Fixed Cost, High Quality Standards.

Business Editors

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 2004

1st Metropolitan Mortgage, a national mortgage broker and a division of Empire Equity Group, Inc., announced it has completed several key infrastructure enhancements that have resulted in continued growth of its scalable model.

"Our management team wants to ensure that 1st Metropolitan simultaneously meets growth goals and maintains the highest level of integrity in the industry while effectively managing costs," Daniel Jacobs, 1st Metropolitan's COO, said. "Establishing a foundation of integrity and compliance has helped us as a privately-owned company grow despite the increase in interest rates and the overall decrease in originations."

While the mortgage industry is trimming employees and making efforts to cut costs during this slow origination period, 1st Metropolitan has added new employees and opened 38 new branches during the second half of 2003. According to Jacobs, the company attributes its growth to focusing on meeting the needs of its employees as well as customers. "We have created an atmosphere that is conducive for individual growth by providing back office support and state-of-the-art technology."

The company's MetroBranching approach has also helped it succeed. This approach treats each office as an entrepreneurial venture and each branch manager is compensated based on the branch's net profit. This helps minimize 1st Metropolitan's operating expenses and fosters an atmosphere that breeds bottom-line profit oriented branch management.

"With MetroBranching we've been able to grow and open several new offices and generate new business despite the fact that the rest of the industry is in a downturn and the regulatory scrutiny with RESPA reform on the horizon," Jacobs said. "Our model gives branch managers peace of mind because they are a part of a national organization that has a solid infrastructure. In fact, many branch managers have told us that they are more profitable than they were when they owned their own mortgage brokerages."

1st Metropolitan has experienced tremendous growth in loan origination volume. In 2000, the company originated $350 million. In 2003, the company's volume rose to $4.42 billion, representing a 1,200 percent growth. During the same time period, according to statistics from the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, the mortgage industry origination volume went from $1.04 trillion to $3.80 trillion, representing a 365 percent growth in loan originations. This means 1st Metropolitan is growing at a rate that is 328 percent faster than the mortgage industry as a whole.

In addition to growth in originations, 1st Metropolitan continues to increase its number offices and now has more than 250 locations nationally. Jacobs said 1st Metropolitan has been able to do this by "investing in technology and talented employees. We have engineered workflow models that make our corporate operations center more efficient than most, resulting in a very strong infrastructure that allows branch offices to flourish within their markets, which has also attracted many qualified individuals to open and operate new branches for us."

All of these efforts are to better serve 1st Metropolitan's branches and include a focus on compliance and quality, which meets the needs of consumers as well as establishes a leading role amid the regulatory changes and scrutiny on the industry.

Empire's business practices, which focus on meeting the needs of employees and customers, has made Empire a strong parent company from which divisions, such as 1st Metropolitan, can look to for support and direction. These business practices have been integrated into the culture of all the Empire acquired companies. "We've been able to weave the best characteristics of acquired companies with the Empire culture," Jacobs added. "We've been able to build a stronger organization that finds itself with a solid foundation and growth potential."

The company has invested in state-of-the-art technology to give its production staff everything to be efficient. A new intranet, MetroNet, offers an array of features needed to properly administer a highly productive branch office, including human resources information, Web mail accounts for all employees, complete marketing campaign programs, compliance information and the company's policy and procedures manual.

Because the administrative and background support is centralized, branches can depend on the 1st Metropolitan corporate office for answers to legal and compliance issues, human resources, operations and to handle all licensing. "We think it is essential to give our branch managers and production staff everything we can that will allow them to focus on better meeting the needs of customers," Jacobs concluded.

About 1st Metropolitan Mortgage

1st Metropolitan Mortgage, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. and a division of Empire Equity Group since 2002, is a national mortgage brokerage, offering products from such lenders as Countrywide Home Mortgage, Chase Mortgage and Washington Mutual. The company is licensed in 48 states with approximately 250 branches nationwide. Leveraging the 20 years of experience of its parent company, 1st Metropolitan has an aggressive business development strategy. 1st Metropolitan's strategic theme for 2004 is The Art of Being 1st: Opportunities Amid Change. For more information, visit www.1stmetro.com.

About Empire Equity Group, Inc.

Empire Equity Group has been in business since 1983 focusing heavily in the Northeastern United States. Since the acquisition of 1st Metropolitan, Empire has established development programs for branch managers, additional infrastructure to meet the needs of branches and installed the latest technology, such as an expanded intranet site and an innovative online loan origination system. For more information, call 704.552.0123.