COLUMBIA, S.C. - Resource Bancshares Mortgage Group Inc. said its loan application pipeline had reached a record $1 billion.
The pipeline is a strong indicator of the trend in origination volume in coming months.
Lee Shelton, vice chairman and managing director, said last week: "This is a landmark performance, especially given the fact that the pipeline totaled only $154 million as of Dec. 31, 1994."
Mr. Shelton said that the company's contrarian strategy of expanding loan production capacity during the 1994 downturn in the market positioned it for the increase in loan volume that has occurred because of the recent drop in interest rates.
The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. reported that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages were the lowest since March 3, 1994.
"While a lot of companies were exiting the business or drastically reducing their capacity, Resource continued to execute its expansion plans," Mr. Shelton said.
The company says it has opened six wholesale offices since May 1994, adding that these offices now have relationships with 439 brokers. Since the beginning of 1995, the company has added 189 correspondents, bringing the total of correspondent relationships to 609."
The company also recently opened six retail residential loan offices in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, Mr. Shelton said. "Resource has now diversified its sources of loan production from exclusively being a correspondent mortgage banker to including wholesale and retail production, with continued emphasis on being a low-cost producer," Mr. Shelton said.
Resource continues to build its loan servicing portfolio, which has reached about $5 billion.
The company's shares have attracted some attention from investors recently, closing last Friday at $14 a share, a high for the year. The stock has traded as low as $8 a share since January.
