Mortgage funder Columbus Capital has notified the 16 brokers it deals with that it will not be doing any more origination business until 2008. The brokers will have to get their funding from other sources.Columbus Capital director Andrew Chepul said the credit markets remained volatile and the group was aiming to consolidate its position in the short term. It planned to re-open its books in the first quarter of 2008, when its funding position would be clearer.Columbus, which competes with groups such as Challenger, Liberty and Mobius, has been in the mortgage funding market for a year. The company is a joint venture between a group of local directors and a Malaysian life insurance company, Malaysian Assurance Alliance.Chepul said Columbus had a $750 million portfolio of prime loans. Included in that is a portfolio of low-doc loans it bought from Bluestone Group.Columbus closed its first securitisation last week, a $255 million RMBS issue, Nautilus Series 2007-1. The issue was taken up by local investors.Columbus priced the class A $204 million senior AAA notes at 69 basis points over the bank bill swap rate. Pricing on the other tranches was not disclosed.Chepul said the group had two warehouse funders and had not run out of money. But it was conserving those resources until it had more certainty about credit market conditions.He said none of the 16 brokers were working with Columbus on an exclusive basis and all would be able to get access to other funders.