AFC First Financial Corporation, a Lehigh Valley, PA
based private financial institution founded in 1947, operates as a mortgage
banker (retail and wholesale), consumer portfolio lender, and the provider of
the EnergyLoan program, a residential financing program for energy related home
improvements.
Founded in 1947 by John L Krajsa Sr. and Anna C. Krajsa, AFC was one of the
first independent lending institutions licensed by the Pennsylvania Department
of Banking. John L. Krajsa Jr. and Peter J. Krajsa joined the company in the
1970s and assumed ownership in the late 1980s. Peter J. Krajsa is the current
owner.
The company began as a specialty lender making unsecured character loans to good
credit borrowers; a market then not serviced by traditional banking
institutions. As the marketplace changed and credit card and other consumer loan
vehicles emerged, AFC First began to focus on home improvement lending (HVAC and
remodeling) as a way to expand its base of good credit customers. The company
also entered the secondary mortgage or home equity lending business in 1980,
among the first such companies licensed in the state.
In 1981 the company began to fund its portfolio in part with investment
certificates offered directly to the public through an offering registered with
the Pennsylvania Securities Commission. AFC First also began active
participation in the secondary market selling mortgages on a bulk and flow
basis. Throughout the 1980s and early 90s the company expanded its business
throughout Pennsylvania primarily through correspondent relationships with
community banks, mortgage companies and mortgage brokers as well as quality home
improvement dealers.
In 1995 AFC First began offering FHA Title One Home Improvement Loans on a
statewide basis, and in 1999 was approved as a FannieMae Energy Loan lender. It
has continued to expand the Energy Loan program offering it in cooperation with
selected sponsoring manufacturers, utilities and other organizations. In early
2005, AFC First was selected by the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund to
create the HELP program and to launch in the West Penn Power service territory
The Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce has recognized AFC with its ?Excellence?
Business of the Year Award and it is an accredited member of most state and
national trade associations.
AFC First is licensed and regulated by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking
under the Secondary Mortgage Loan Act and the Consumer Discount Company Act. As
such a licensee it meets the requirements to function as a first and secondary
mortgage banker or broker and is exempt from the Pennsylvania Mortgage Bankers
and Brokers Act. It makes first mortgages under the Pennsylvania Loan Interest
and Protection Law and is a Federal Housing Creditor under the Garn-St. Germain
Act. As a licensed consumer lender or sales finance company in Pennsylvania,
Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Virginia and Vermont, the company
makes the EnergyLoan program available to homeowners in those states as well as
Massachusetts, New York under exemptions.
AFC First is an approved lender by the Federal Housing Administration under
Title One and Title Two of the Federal Housing Act, an approved FannieMae Energy
Loan Lender and is an approved correspondent lender of organizations such as J.P
Morgan Chase and Sovereign Bank.
Contact Us for more information or call us toll free at (888) AFC-FIRST
(232-3477) with any questions you may have for us.
