U.S. Bank Home Mortgage funded $8.1 billion of mortgages through loan brokers in the fourth quarter, displacing Provident Funding Associates as the nation's largest player in the channel, according new figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.
Although U.S. Home ranked first, its overall wholesale volume fell by 10% compared to the same quarter a year earlier.
For the past few quarters Wells Fargo and Provident have been trading places in the number one slot.
Provident, which ranked first in the 3Q, saw its wholesale volume fall 20%, Wells by 46%. Wells, though, is increasing its presence in the correspondent channel where it ranks first with a hefty market share of 34%.
As a percentage of all new originations, the wholesale channel has been growing in prominence the past few quarters but still only accounts for 11% of all fundings.
Among the top 10 wholesale funders just two firms saw an increase in business: MetLife Home Loans (up 3%), and Union Bank, San Francisco (up 9%), NMN/QDR found. Ironically, MetLife has since exited all of residential finance except for the reverse business. It continues to service loans.
NMN is in the process of surveying lenders for their 1Q volumes.
