Loan originators tend to be a loyal bunch, with the average originator having been at the same employer for several years. Few of the originators found their current jobs through traditional job search methods. Most of the survey participants indicated that they don’t work for a bank — a sharp contrast to the overall originator population. Over a quarter of survey participants are self-employed.

Tenure
The average originator who participated in the 2012 Loan Originator Survey has been with the same employer for 7.3 years. The longest tenure listed by any originator was 32 years.

Job Source
One question asked respondents how they found their current employers. “Referred by a colleague” was selected by 28 percent, and another 23 percent said they were recruited by their employers.

Just 5 percent found their job through a job search, only 4 percent were located through a recruiter and a meager 0.8 percent said help wanted ads were the source of their current jobs.

Included in the 39 percent who indicated that they found their current job through “other” were 28 percent who said that they are self-employed.

Employer Type
Over half of the participating originators — or 53 percent — work for a mortgage banker that is not affiliated with a bank. Another 29 percent indicated that their employer was a non-bank mortgage broker.

The share of originators who work for a bank was 12 percent, and an additional 6 percent said they work for a mortgage subsidiary of a bank.

The 18 percent share of loan officers in the 2012 Loan Originator Survey who are associated with a bank is in sharp contrast to the overall mortgage lending population; seven of the 10-biggest residential lenders during the third quarter were banks, and those seven institutions accounted for 56 percent of all U.S. residential originations.

The numbers also contrast the registrations through the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System. As of Sept. 30, there were 115,826 state-licensed or state-registered individuals on NMLS, while the federal banking registry had 394,470 registrants.