Fortress Investment Group (NYSE: FIG) and Quicken Loans announced last week that they’ve entered into an exclusive joint venture to help Fortress implement a refinancing and loan modification strategy for its mortgage portfolio and investments.  Fortress acquired more than $12 billion of servicing when it purchased the subprime mortgage banking operations of Centex in March of 2006.

“This partnership will help bring needed liquidity to homeowners facing increasingly limited options while at the same time providing investors in Fortress funds with a competitive advantage” said Pete Briger, Fortress President.  The joint venture should also help Fortress refinance some of the subprime or delinquent loans it purchased from Centex.

“Fortress is a leading investor in residential mortgage loans. We look forward to working with them to help put as many homeowners as possible in a better home financing situation,” said Dan Gilbert, Chairman and Founder of Quicken Loans.  The partnership should be a good source of business for Quicken’s internet origination platform which now includes reverse mortgages.

When Quicken purchased One Reverse Mortgage earlier this year, the company underwent a transformation into a web based origination platform.  The changes seem to be paying off, according to HUD’s Neighborhood Watch Tool, One Reverse Mortgage has endorsed 456 HECMs in the past 12 months.

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