The biggest originator of federally insured reverse mortgages saw monthly business soar 37 percent. While reverse volume through retail lenders has climbed 8 percent over the past year, wholesale originations have been chopped in half.
Based on retail and wholesale volume, the biggest originator of home-equity conversion mortgages during August was Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., according to data released by Reverse Market Insight. Volume jumped to 2,000 units — the highest level this year — from 1,460 in July.
HECMs are insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
No. 2 Bank of America, N.A., saw HECM originations rise to 1,106 loans from 864 in July, while MetLife Bank came in third with August business declining to 964 loans from 1,062. Next was Genworth Financial Home Equity, where the number of reverse mortgages closed climbed to 621 units from 581. Generation Mortgage Co. rounded out the top five, with activity edging up to 369 loans from 366.
Data on just retail originations indicated that 3,969 federally insured retail reverse mortgages were closed in August versus 3,358 in July. A year earlier, 3,681 retail originations occurred.
The annual improvement didn’t carry over to the wholesale channel, which saw volume fall to 2,672 from 5,246 in August 2009. But wholesale originations were better than 2,521 HECMs originated in July.
MetLife maintained its dominance of the wholesale channel, closing 567 loans in August compared to 667 in July.
Genworth was No. 2 at 451 loans, higher than 334 the month before. No. 3 BofA saw wholesale production climb to 429 loans in August from 302, while Urban closed 301 HECMs, fewer than 324 wholesale loans a month earlier. No. 5 Generation closed 285 reverse mortgages in August, two more than the month previous.
