Loan Production Cratered in 2008, Top Five Suffered

Even though it appears that loan applications and fundings swelled in the first quarter of this year, 2008 was one of the bleakest ones on record with all of the nation's top ranked firms suffering, according to a new annual tally by National Mortgage News. NMN found that the top five residential funders — Wells Fargo & Co., Chase, Bank of America, Countrywide (pre-BoA), and CitiMortgage — suffered large declines in originations. BoA's full-year origination volume suffered the least (down 4%) — but only because it had Countrywide under its corporate umbrella in the second half of the year. (The purchase closed on July 1.) Wells ranked first among all originators with $234 billion in fundings and a market share of 13.41%, followed by Chase ($187 billion/10.69%), Bank of America ($187 billion/10.41%); Countrywide ($132 billion/7.54%), and CitiMortgage ($115 billion/6.59%). If Countrywide's first half fundings are added to BoA's it would give the latter full year production of $314 billion, far eclipsing Wells. Year-over-year, Wells' originations fell by 14%. Chase, Countrywide and Citigroup had declines of 11%, 68% and 42%, respectively.