Biggest Mortgage Companies

FORTUNE magazine recently released the Global 500, a ranking of the world’s largest service and industrial corporations in revenue.

The third-largest mortgage related company in the world is Citigroup, which moved up two spots from the previous ranking to place No. 14 overall thanks to revenues of nearly $131 billion. Profits for the parent of CitiMortgage and CitiFinancial amounted to $25 billion and its employee count was 303,000, according to the magazine.

American International Group, with $109 billion in revenues, landed in spot No. 20. Earnings were under $11 billion for the New York-based insurance company, which owns Wilmington Finance, a subprime lender that recently closed the doors to more than half of its retail call centers.

At No. 26 was HSBC Holdings, with $93 billion in revenue. The London-based company’s earnings were $16 billion and its head count, which includes Household Finance employees, was 284,000, the magazine reported.

Bank of America reportedly jumped 15 spots from last year to No. 37 as its revenues increased 33 percent to almost $84 billion.

Falling 10 spots to No. 42 this year was Berkshire Hathaway, which generated revenues of $82 billion and close to $9 billion in profits. The Nebraska-based company, which has the world’s second-richest individual as its chief executive, includes 21st Mortgage.

Also within the top 10 percent were JPMorgan Chase & Co. in 45th place with $80 billion in revenue and Deutsche Bank in 48th place due to revenues of $76 billion.

The remaining first half of the list included Credit Suisse in 57th place, ABN AMRO Holding, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs Group, Wells Fargo in spot No. 138, Freddie Mac, Wachovia Corp., Lehman Brothers Holdings, Prudential Financial, American Express, and Royal Bank of Canada in 250th place due to revenues of $24 billion, according to the magazine.

Amongst the mortgage-related entities in the last half of the ranking were Washington Mutual at No. 297 with over $21 billion in revenues; Electronic Data Systems, parent to residential and consumer loan servicer Wendover Financial Services Corp.; Countrywide Financial, which jumped 88 spots to No. 351 just as its revenues improved 32 percent over the year to $19 billion; U.S. Bancorp; followed by homebuilders Centex, Pulte Homes, Lennar and D.R. Horton, which had revenues near $14 billion, FORTUNE said.

But the third-largest mortgage related company in the world was Citigroup, which moved up two spots from the previous ranking to place No. 14 overall thanks to revenues of nearly $131 billion. Profits for the parent of CitiMortgage and CitiFinancial amounted to $25 billion and its employee count was 303,000, according to the magazine.

The 11th largest of the 500 companies was General Electric, with revenues of $157 billion last year. Thus, the parent of WMC Finance Co. took home the silver medal amongst mortgage-related entities on the list even as it fell two spots from its previous year’s rank. GE employs 316,000 people and had profits of $16 billion in 2005. Within American companies, FORTUNE earlier this year reported GE was the seventh-largest.

The world’s largest mortgage-related entity, however, is General Motors, which again landed at No. 5. The automaker, employer to 335,000 people, made the top 1 percent through its revenues of $193, although it reported net losses of $10.6 billion, according to the magazine. Last year, GM transferred the ownership of Residential Funding Corp. and GMAC Mortgage Corp. to Residential Capital from General Motors Acceptance Corp. And last quarter, GM agreed to sell a 51 percent controlling interest in GMAC for $14 billion over three years, as a means to gain significant liquidity and improve GMAC’s access to cost-effective funding.