BB&T Top Warehouse Provider, But Many Not Reporting

BB&T Corp., Winston-Salem, N.C., ranked first among all warehouse providers in terms of commitments for the period ending Sept. 30, thanks mostly to its acquisition of Colonial BancGroup of Alabama. BB&T had roughly $3 billion of commitments at the end of the period, but the figure is an estimate based on Colonial's lines at the time of its failure in August. The survey was conducted by National Mortgage News. Several firms, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, declined to provide a commitment number. BB&T officials would not comment on its warehouse business or discuss the dollar volume of its lines. Executives familiar with BB&T's efforts in the space, say it is committed to providing credit to nonbank originators but is only making lines to lenders that operate in its bank footprint. The bank has 1,500 offices nationwide. Prior to buying Colonial, BB&T already had a small warehouse lending division. The Mortgage Bankers Association recently said the warehouse market is showing signs of improvement with many banks expanding credit to their mortgage banking customers. (On Monday the paper edition of NMN will publish its final ranking of warehouse lenders.)