15 Largest U.S. Lenders

15 Largest U.S. Lenders

DALLAS — (Aug. 5, 2009) /PRNewswire/ Residential originations at U.S. mortgage lenders jumped by nearly one-quarter in MortgageDaily.com’s Second Quarter 2009 Production Ranking. Among the star performers were Wells Fargo & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Quicken Loans Inc.

Second-quarter home loan fundings increased 24 percent from the first quarter, according to MortgageDaily.com’s analysis of earnings and origination data. Volume was also up 24 percent from the second-quarter 2008.

“Second-quarter activity was driven by low mortgage rates and high refinance activity,” Sam Garcia, Founder and Publisher of MortgageDaily.com, stated. “Also impacting business was an uptick in loans to finance home purchases. But as rates have bounced off their record lows and refinances have eased, we project a decline in third-quarter production.”

Wells Fargo maintained its ranking as the biggest U.S. lender. Second-quarter volume at the San Francisco-based institution was up 28 percent from the prior quarter and 64 percent from the prior year’s combined Wells-Wachovia originations.

No. 2 Bank of America Corp. was the only other mortgage lender to exceed $100 billion in quarterly originations.

At Citigroup, production shot up 42 percent from the first quarter — more than any other top-15 lender. But at The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., business declined 7 percent — the worst performance of all big firms.

Compared to the second-quarter 2008, Quicken Loans saw the highest increase of the 15 biggest originators: 193 percent. But JPMorgan Chase & Co. saw its business fall 41 percent from combined fundings last year at JPMorgan and Washington Mutual.