Who's who in wholesale 2005: countrywide once again emerged as the top firm out of this annual ranking of wholesale and correspondent lenders

Mortgage Banking, August, 2006 by Tom LaMalfa

Rounding out the top 28 spots were Irwin Mortgage Corporation (Fishers, Indiana) at $9.5 billion, LoanCity at $6.5 billion, Wachovia at $4.4 billion, Waterfield Financial Corporation/Union Federal at $3.9 billion, EverBank at $3.2 billion, BB & T at $2.6 billion and Fifth Third at $1.9 billion. Five of the seven were within two positions of where they stood a year earlier.

Figure 3 splits wholesale activity by channel, either table-funded/broker or closed-loan/correspondent. Of the $1.24 trillion of total wholesale production for the surveyed firms, 51 percent was broker business and 49 percent was correspondent production. This is the fourth straight year in which table-funded volume exceeded closed-loan volume, but by the narrowest margin ever.

Note that activity is much more diffused in the broker channel, where all 28 surveyed firms participate. Six firms don't even offer a correspondent program and another seven produced less than $3 billion through the channel in 2005. Indeed, only nine firms bought more than $10 billion of closed loans, while 19 firms produced $10 billion or more through table funding.

One firm--Countrywide--again showed its dominance over both the correspondent and broker channels. In both, the company did nearly twice as much volume as the next-largest firm in 2005.

The top 10

The top-10 wholesalers are included and ranked in Figure 3. What follows is a brief overview of their purchased production, along with their rankings for servicing and in subprime lending.

At $336.5 billion, Countrywide was the largest wholesaler in our 2005 ranking by nearly $153 billion. It retained its first-place status for a third consecutive year. Table funding accounted for about 30 percent of its wholesale production. It is the nation's largest servicer and third-largest subprime lender, per National Mortgage News' (NMN's) Dec. 31, 2005, ranking.

Wells Fargo, with about $183 billion of production, was the second-largest wholesaler--its first year in that position since 2002. About 28 percent of its purchase business came through the broker door, compared with 72 percent from the correspondent channel. Wells Fargo is the nation's second-largest servicer, per the NMN listing.

Washington Mutual, at $145.6 billion, was the third-biggest wholesale producer last year. About half (46 percent) of its third-party production came through correspondent lenders. According to NMN, Washington Mutual was the third-largest servicer and the seventh-largest sub-prime lender.

Chase ranked as the fourth-largest wholesaler in 2005 with $64.5 billion of production, its fourth year in that spot. Brokers accounted for 78 percent of its wholesale production. Chase continued its push back from its traditionally strong correspondent program. Per NMN, Chase was the fourth-largest servicer and 19th-largest subprime lender last year.

At $58.5 billion, CitiMortgage was ranked fifth-largest wholesale producer. It held that same position in 2004. About 77 percent of its purchased volume comes from the correspondent channel. The company ranked as the nation's fifth-largest servicer and 12th-largest subprime lender, per NMN.