As the leading reverse mortgage lender saw a decline in monthly originations, the third-biggest lender leapt past the second-biggest company to become the new No. 2. Government insured reverse mortgages originated through the wholesale channel were stronger on a month-over-month basis, but retail activity drifted down.
Based on home-equity conversion mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration and non-FHA reverse mortgage originations, MetLife Bank was the biggest reverse mortgage lender in February. The company closed 1,289 reverse mortgages, dropping from 1,514 units a month earlier.
With 992 in production, Genworth Financial Home Equity was the next-biggest originator. Genworth’s January volume was 531 reverse mortgages.
According to Reverse Market Insight, which provided the figures, Urban Financial Group followed with 680 reverse mortgage fundings, then One Reverse Mortgage LLC’s 417 and Sun West Mortgage Co. Inc.’s 288 loans.
Non-FHA reverse mortgage production was highest at Genworth, where 349 reverse mortgages were closed, up from 145 the prior month.
Urban Financial funded 330 private reverse mortgages, while Sun West closed 288, another 229 were generated through at Generation and 157 were originated through MetLife.
Out of February’s total 5,417 HECMs endorsed by FHA, retail business accounted for 2,870, inching down from January’s 2,949. Retail endorsements tumbled from 4,075 a year earlier.
Wholesale HECMs endorsed by FHA were 2,547 during February, climbing from 2,212 a month earlier but falling from 2,805 in February 2011.
Based on the past 12 months’ HECMÂ endorsements and private reverse mortgage fundings, Urban Financial was the biggest wholesale lender. Urban Financial’s had 307 active brokers.
MetLife, which had 435 active brokers, came in second. Generation, with 242 active brokers, was third, and Genworth, which originated wholesale business through 759 active brokers, was the fourth-biggest wholesale originator of combined FHAÂ and non-FHA reverse mortgages.
