Biggest Mortgage Lenders and Servicers

Two firms moved up a couple notches in the latest ranking of mortgage originators and servicers. The outlook for new lending activity is likely to improve thanks to Brexit.

Residential lenders, including non-bank mortgage firms and financial institutions, closed an estimated $354 billion in home loans during the first-three months of this year.

Estimated mortgage production was down from $375 billion in the fourth-quarter 2015. Home lending activity also receded from $395 billion in the first-quarter 2015.

The estimate was based on a Mortgage Daily analysis of data provided the by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Callahan & Associates and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.

Banks were responsible for 43 percent of first-quarter 2016 originations, while credit unions generated 9 percent of the total, and
non-banks funded 48 percent.

With
$44.0 billion in first-quarter 2016 production, Wells Fargo & Co. maintained its tight grip on its title of biggest mortgage originator.

loanDepot LLC moved up from No. 10 in the fourth-quarter 2015 to No. 8 in the latest ranking, while Citigroup Inc. dropped to 10th position from the eighth spot three months earlier.

Freedom Mortgage Corp., which reportedly closed less than $8 billion in the fourth-quarter 2015, refused to participate in the Mortgage Daily First Quarter 2016 Mortgage Origination Survey.

An average of economic forecasts from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association indicates that total mortgage originations are expected to surge from an estimated $351 billion in the first quarter of this year to $499 billion in the second quarter then retreat to $456 billion three months later.

However, with the significant decline in interest rates as a result of the market volatility caused from the recent vote by citizens of Great Britain to exit the European Union, origination forecasts for the rest of this year are likely to increase.

As of March 31, 2016, there were $9.110 trillion
in first and second liens outstanding, according to CoreLogic Inc.

Mortgage debt outstanding has grown since the
same quarter 12 months earlier, when there were $8.841 trillion in residential loans outstanding.

Based on the size of primary servicing portfolios, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo was also the biggest mortgage company. Wells Fargo serviced approximately 18 percent of all mortgages.

Walter Investment Management Corp. replaced Ocwen Financial Corp. as the seventh-largest mortgage servicer.