A string of acquisitions - including the portfolio of Household Finance - propelled Fleet Mortgage Group's residential servicing beyond $100 billion.
The Columbia, S.C., mortgage company's servicing portfolio jumped 25%, to $103 billion, during the six months ended June 30.
In addition to a $16 billion portfolio from lender Household Finance, Fleet acquired $9 billion of servicing with its purchase of Plaza Home Mortgage. The Plaza transaction earlier this year gave Fleet a wholesale platform to increase lending and servicing volume.
The mortgage company also saw servicing grow through internal operations, most noticeably through correspondent lending, a spokeswoman said.
Fleet Mortgage is to get a quick boost in coming months when its parent, Fleet Financial Group, wraps up the purchase of Shawmut National Corp.
Shawmut would bring $8 billion of servicing as part of a West Hartford, Conn., mortgage unit that Fleet would fold into its South Carolina group.
Fleet plans to keep most if not all of Shawmut's 50 loan officers and many of the operation staff, the spokeswoman said.
She said Andrew D. Woodward Jr., Fleet Mortgage's chairman, feels strongly about building the servicing portfolio to increase economies of scale and profits.
The banking company also sees servicing as a great way to get its foot in the door - or in the mailbox - through solicitations to mortgageholders.
Credit cards and home equity loans are offered through a pilot program Fleet recently began and hopes to expand soon.
Fleet's growth strategy appears to be working. The mortgage unit has increased its residential portfolio to nearly 1.4 million loans. The number indicates that Fleet is serving one out of every 32 mortgageholders in the country, the spokeswoman said.
