It’s a holiday weekend in the middle of year, and as summer approaches what better time to preview our ’Five Mortgage Firms to Keep an Eye On (And Why)’ report. A more extensive analysis of these five (and five additional companies) will appear next month on the MortgageStats.com website, which features up-to-the minute rankings, analysis and more. So, without further delay here are the magic five:
(*)Total Mortgage Services: This Connecticut-based nonbank is managed and owned by John Walsh (one of many John Walshs in the mortgage industry). It has carefully grown its product menu and expanded its geographic footprint. Last year it entered the wholesale channel and continues to hire new (and experienced) account executives. Is an IPO in the works down the road?
(*)Quicken Loans: Dan Gilbert is chairman and founder of this nonbank mortgage lender – plus he owns the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team. He lost LeBron James (but received two high draft picks) and knows that it’s not so bad starting over. (We’ll see how LeBron does in the playoffs.) Quicken mostly avoided the nonprime market and lived to tell about it. It markets and advertises carefully to both consumers and the mortgage industry. Late this week Quicken launched a new corresponding lending platform that will cater to community banks and credit unions. QLMS will manage all of the support services for the loans on the back-end.
(*)PHH Mortgage: Along with Quicken, PHH is the other largest nonbank among the top 10 home funders in America, according to figures compiled by NMN and the Quarterly Data Report. (To order our top 100 ranking email:
(*)Springleaf Financial: How did this subprime company – formerly known as American General Finance – and owned, in part, by AIG, survive during the financial crackup of housing and mortgages? Answer: Uncle Sam owns AIG. NMN broke the news last week that Springleaf plans to go public through a spinoff, raising $500 million in equity. It plans on buying and funding hard money mortgages. We’ve talked to two mortgage chiefs who’ve already been approached by Springleaf – which still boasts 1,100 retail branches. That’s not a misprint: 1,100 branches. Household, Associates, and Beneficial (and their branches) are all dead and gone. Poof. Springleaf/AmGen lives on, servicing $13 billion in mortgages. But let’s see how the stock sale goes.
(*)IBM Lender Business Process Services: This is IBM’s mortgage servicing arm, which has a major relationship with Fannie Mae. How major is that relationship? Neither firm will tell us. Suffice to say IBM LBPS is servicing/subservicing for JPMorgan Chase too. It has offices in Oregon and North Carolina and has a goal (so we’re told) of getting to $500 billion in MSR contracts within a few years. Like Springleaf, LBPS doesn’t talk to the trade press much. As I’ve always felt: beware of companies (and politicians) that like staying under the radar. They are either really smart (and don’t want others to know) or they fear the sunlight, sort of like a vampire. LBPS, by the way, is changing its name. The new name is horrible, but what do you want from a bunch of computer geeks?
WASHINGTON NEWS: It’s all Washington News.
DATA NOTICE #1: NMN is still collecting quarterly origination and servicing stats for its 1Q edition of the Quarterly Data Report. We also are collecting figures for our annual rankings which will appear – along with my data analysis – on MortgageStats.com. If you would like to send us your numbers drop a line to:
DATA NOTICE #2: If you’re looking for a full year ranking of all the top ranked correspondent loan buyers and wholesaler funders (and more) that information is in the new Annual Data Report, which is published by National Mortgage News. The ADR, an Excel spreadsheet, also includes the nation’s top 100 retailers, servicers and much more. If you need telephone numbers and contact names that information can be found in the new edition of MortgageStats.com. For more on the ADR and M-Stats drop an email to:
KEY CONFERENCE YOU NEED TO ATTEND: On June 16-17 SourceMedia will hold its annual ‘Distressed Assets Conference’ in the Big Apple. Upcoming: SM’s 3rd Annual ‘Best Practices in Loss Mitigation Conference.’ That show is in Dallas. SourceMedia is the publisher of NMN, Origination News, Mortgage Servicing News, Credit Union Journal, U.S. Banker, American Banker and other assorted financial publications.
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THE LAST WORD: Drive safely this weekend and remember our troops overseas.
