Although total originations fell by about 13% last year, mortgage bankers funded almost $38 billion of interest-only mortgages in 2010, an 8% increase from the prior year, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News.
The improvement stems from the fact that many IOs are actually jumbo loans, a product that saw increased liquidity last year as several megabanks and regionals moved to place such assets on their balance sheets.
Wells Fargo & Co. was the top ranked IO lender last year with $10.8 billion funded, an 8% gain from 2009. PHH Mortgage ranked second with $6 billion funded (up 22%), followed by CitiMortgage ($3.4 billion funded/up 28%).
The largest overall gainer in IO lending (on a percentage basis) was People's United Bank of Bridgeport, Conn., which saw its volume increase by 362% to $64 million.
The results of the NMN survey were affected by the fact that some top ranked lenders would not disclose this data point.
