Despite a weak final quarter, last year’s home lending activity improved by nearly a third compared to 2014’s mortgage production.
During just the fourth quarter of 2015, U.S. mortgage originations at the nation’s residential lenders totaled an estimated $375 billion.
That was according to a Mortgage Daily analysis of lending data for federally insured banks, credit unions and non-bank lenders.
Mortgage production retreated from an estimated third-quarter total of $435 billion.
But business in the sector improved from an estimated $344 billion during the final three months of 2014.
The most-recent period’s biggest lender was Wells Fargo & Co.
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Quarterly Originations By Lender
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| Missing from the fourth-quarter 2015 list of biggest mortgage lenders due to its refusal to report origination data was Freedom Mortgage Corp., which last reported $10 billion in second-quarter 2015 production.
The latest aggregate activity brought full-year 2015 residential loan production from all originators to an estimated $1.683 trillion. Mortgage lending escalated from 2014, when originations amounted to an estimated $1.290 trillion. Banks were responsible for 43 percent of last year’s mortgage business, losing share from 2014 when they originated 47 percent of all loans. Annual credit union share remained Non-bank mortgage originators captured a bigger piece of the market, with mortgage market share expanding to 48 percent in 2015 from 44 percent a year earlier. Wells Fargo also held the top spot among all lenders in the annual ranking. Both BofA and PHH fell in the rankings compared to 2014. |
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Freedom Mortgage, which was also missing from the annual ranking, funded $24 billion during all of 2014.
Moving on to loan servicing, Wells Fargo maintained its standing of the country’s biggest mortgage servicer.
Ocwen Financial Corp. which ranked as the fifth-largest servicer as of Dec. 31, 2014, dropped to the seventh spot in the latest tally.
Servicing Portfolios By Lender
as of Dec. 31, 2015
(billions/includes investment loans/
excludes sub-servicing)
| Wells Fargo | $1,645 |
| Chase | $910 |
| BofA | $565 |
| Nationstar Mortgage LLC | $398 |
| U.S Bank | $302 |
| Citi | $273 |
| Ocwen | $233 |
| Walter Investment Management Corp. | $230 |
| Quicken | $196 |
| PNCÂ Financial Services Group Inc. | $169 |
