Fast Growing Lender Adding Correspondent Program

Stearns Lending, Santa Ana, Calif., one of the fastest growing wholesale funders in the nation, plans to launch a new correspondent program next month, according to its founder and CEO. In an interview with National Mortgage News, CEO Glenn Stearns said it will "go after the larger shops out there" as a correspondent buyer. The privately held nonbank survived the credit crisis by shrinking during the subprime boom and sticking to conventional lending. Over the past two years it has grown rapidly by scooping up the wholesale production networks of many nonbanks that failed. According to the Quarterly Data Report, the 20-year old Stearns Lending ranked 13th among all wholesale originators in the fourth quarter with $1.7 billion in fundings. Among the top 15, it had the second highest growth rate: 141%. The only wholesaler growing faster was Provident Funding Associations, Burlingame, Calif., with 145%. PFA ranked first in 4Q, according to NMN/QDR.