Who's who in wholesale 2006: here's our annual story on the top wholesale and correspondent lenders. Last year was a year of many stories in the wholesale lending space

Mortgage Banking, June, 2007 by Tom LaMalfa

Bank of America ranked ninth at $29.8 billion--down one spot from 2005 in terms of its table-funding volume. Seizing the 10th position was Homecomings Financial, with $26.8 billion--$10.5 billion ahead of its 2005 broker production volume. There were two new entrants on the list of the top-10 broker wholesalers--CitiMortgage and Homecomings Financial, replacing ABN AMRO and National City.

In the aggregate, table-funded business for the top-10 totaled $457.1 billion in 2006--a 1.7 percent increase from 2005's level. The top four positions have remained in the same hands for four consecutive years, but Indymac is pushing up against Chase.

Top correspondent lenders

Figure 5 lists the 10 largest closed-loan buyers for 2006. In the top spot is Wells Fargo with $188.7 billion of production, up 43 percent from the previous year. Only $3.4 billion behind was Countrywide with $185.3 billion in volume, but 26 percent below its 2005 volume.

Ranked third with $54 billion of correspondent business was CitiMortgage. Its closed-loan activity was about $10 billion more than its year-earlier production.

Washington Mutual was the fourth-largest buyer of closed loans in 2006, one spot below its position the prior year. It purchased $50 billion, about $16 billion less than in 2005. Aurora Loan Services, with $26.4 billion of correspondent production, ranked fifth--the same position it held in 2005, but with $12.4 billion less in volume.

Unchanged in the rankings was Chase at $15.4 billion, the sixth-largest closed-loan buyer last year. Its volume rose $1.3 billion from the year earlier. Ranked seventh was SunTrust at $12 billion. U.S. Bank posted the eighth-largest correspondent volume for 2006 at $10.7 billion, up three positions with essentially unchanged purchase activity. Indymac ranked ninth-largest at $10.3 billion, down two spots and $2.3 billion from the previous year. Rounding out the ranks of the top 10 in correspondent volume was ABN AMRO with $9.1 billion. It held a spot two rungs higher in 2005, with about $3 billion less production.

Total volume for the top-10 correspondent lenders last year was $561.9 billion last year, nearly unchanged from 2005's pace. Slipping out of the 2006 top-10 roster was Flagstar and onto the list was SunTrust.

Top retailers

Figure 6 lists the top-10 retail originators among the lenders surveyed for this edition of the Who's Who rankings. The largest retailer among this group for 2006, as for the past decade, was Wells Fargo. Its retail volume totaled $158.5 billion, only $2.7 billion ahead of the second-largest firm and $50.4 billion less than its 2005 volume. At $155.8 billion, Countrywide was ranked the No. 2 retailer but is closing in on No. 1.

Bank of America was third largest with retail volume of $135 billion, about $75 billion over its year-earlier level. The No. 4 retailer was Wachovia, with $100.1 billion. Its ranking was up along with its volume, which was up about $47 billion year-over-year. The big increase reflects its acquisition of Golden West Financial Corporation in 2006. Washington Mutual, the fifth-ranked retail originator at $80 billion, lost two places with a $23 billion drop in originations.