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Posts Tagged ‘wells fargo’
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
 With the 2009 fiscal year ending on September 30, this month’s HECM volume report revealed a new list of the top 10 reverse mortgage lenders, very much changed from that of last fiscal year. The list is below, compared to that of 2009 FY. However, given how close many of the lenders are to each other in terms of the number of HECMs they endorsed, it is by no means clear how the list will shake out over the next few months.
October 2009:
1. Wells Fargo
2. Bank of America
3. MetLife Bank
4. Financial Freedom Acquisition
5. One Reverse Mortgage
6. 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage
7. First Mariner Bank
8. Security One Lending
9. Harvard Home Mortgage
10. Stay in Home Mortgage
Fiscal Year 2009:
1. Wells Fargo
2. Bank of America
3. World Alliance Financial Corp
4. Financial Freedom
5. One Reverse Mortgage
6. MetLife Bank
7. Countrywide Financial
8. Generation Mortgage
9. Urban Financial Group
10. 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage
Thus, from last year’s top 10, only 6 remain in the top 10 for October. The complete list for October can be found on the HUD website. The changes will also be reflected on the Reverse Mortgage Guides website in the Lender Directory in the near future.
Tags: 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage, 2009 FY, Bank of America, Countrywide, financial freedom, First Mariner Bank, generation mortgage, Harvard Home Mortgage, hecm, hecm volume, HECM volume report, HECMs, HUD, list, MetLife, One Reverse Mortgage, reverse mortgage, reverse mortgage lender, reverse mortgage lenders, reverse mortgages, Security One Lending, Stay in Home Mortgage, top 10 list, Urban Financial, wells fargo, World Alliance Financial Corp
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Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
 In a move that is designed to help the housing industry, the Wall Street Journal reported today that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are working on a program to help smaller banks get the short term credit needed to help them make home loans. This would come in the form of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac making advance commitments to buy home loans that meet a certain criteria. The program builds on a pilot program already underway between Freddie Mac and NattyMac and Provident Lender Associates LP.
While it seems that much of this plan has yet to be announced, any assistance to small banks appears to be welcome. Another column in the Wall Street Journal pointed out that there are over 8,000 mortgage lenders nationwide (not counting reverse mortgage lenders). When one considers that the majority of mortgage loans tend to be completed by the three major banks- Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase. These three lenders alone account for 52% of new home mortgages, up 15% from the 37% market share for the top 3 lenders in 2007. An increase in market share for the top lenders likely doesn’t bode well for the industry though. As a result, it will be interesting to see if the plan with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will help revitalize the mortgage industry by helping the smaller lenders.
Tags: Bank of America, fannie mae, Freddie Mac, home loan, home loans, housing industry, J.P. Morgan Chase, lenders, Mortgage, mortgages, NattyMac, Provident Lender Associates LP, reverse mortagages, reverse mortgage, Wall Street Journal, wells fargo
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Monday, October 5th, 2009
 September’s HECM volume report as published by HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Development) showed that the number of HECMs endorsed increased by about 500 loans from August to September. The number of HECMs endorsed in September was 9,473, while 8,933 HECMs were endorsed in August. However, this number does not reflect the dramatic increase in the number of case numbers assigned the last week in September during the final days of the former PLF limits. As such, the number of HECMs endorsed should rise rapidly in October and November, as they are processed and closed.
In the meantime, the HECM lenders in the top 10 remained unchanged from August. These top 10 lenders are measured by the total number of HECMs endorsed so far this year, explaining why some lenders that have left the reverse mortgage business are still in the top 10. The list is as follows:
1. Wells Fargo
2. Bank of America
3. World Alliance Financial Corp
4. Financial Freedom
5. One Reverse Mortgage
6. MetLife Bank
7. Countrywide Financial
8. Generation Mortgage
9. Urban Financial Group
10. 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage
It will be very interesting to see if this list changes in the next two months as the number of HECMs endorsed increases dramatically. The complete list for September can be found on the HUD website. The changes will be reflected on the Reverse Mortgage Guides website in the Lender Directory within the next week.
Tags: 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage, August, Bank of America, Countrywide, financial freedom, generation mortgage, hecm, HECM volume report, HECMs, HUD, MetLife, One Reverse Mortgage, PLF, reverse mortgage, reverse mortgages, September, top 10 list, Urban Financial, wells fargo, World Alliance Financial Corp
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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
 HECM volume increased dramatically this month. 9,830 HECMs were endorsed in July, up from 8,633 last month. This is a good sign if 2009 HECM volume is to surpass the HECM volume in 2008.
The same 9 lenders continued to possess an increased market share despite one of them (World Alliance Financial Corp) going out of buisness last month. One wonders if the increased number of endorsed HECMs from World Alliance Financial Corp (also known as Senior Lending Network) are a result of them trying to close out their pipeline as fast as possible. World Alliance Financial Corp rose to the #3 spot this month from number 4 a month ago. It will be interesting to see if they remain in the #3 spot next month.
The top nine lenders are ordered below with rankings determined by the number of HECMs endorsed by the lenders YTD. Financial Freedom only endorsed 10 HECMs last month, while Countrywide endorsed 8. One Reverse Mortgage surpassed Countrywide this past month in HECMs closed YTD. Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America back in January, and it will be interesting to see if the HECM volume attributed to them continues to decline as well (so far it looks as if it has).
Finally, it is important to note that only nine lenders were highlighted because several lenders, led by 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage Inc. are clustered under Urban Financial. This group has closed between 900 and 960 leads so far this year, but is still well under Urban Financial’s totals.
Top Nine HECM Lenders by Volume – June
1. Wells Fargo
2. Bank of America
3. Financial Freedom
4. World Alliance Financial Corp.
5. Countrywide
6. One Reverse Mortgage
7. MetLife
8. Generation Mortgage
9. Urban Financial
Top Nine HECM Lenders by Volume – July
1. Wells Fargo
2. Bank of America
3. World Alliance Financial Corp.
4. Financial Freedom
5. One Reverse Mortgage
6. Countrywide
7. MetLife
8. Generation Mortgage
9. Urban Financial
The complete lender list can be found here.
Tags: 1st AAA Reverse Mortgage, Bank of America, Countrywide, financial freedom, generation mortgage, hecm, HECM volume report, July, June, lender, lender list, lenders, MetLife, One Reverse Mortgage, reverse mortgage, reverse mortgages, Senior Lending Network, Urban Financial, wells fargo, World Alliance Financial Corp
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Monday, June 8th, 2009
 The city of Baltimore is suing Wells Fargo for systematically singling out African Americans as targets for subprime loans. Wells Fargo was accused of systematically selling subprime mortgages to minorities in a federal lawsuit filed by the city of Baltimore. A lawsuit is also being filed by the NAACP, and Illinois and New York are among the states looking into more filings. In Baltimore, more than half the Wells Fargo properties that went into foreclosure currently stand vacant, and 71% are in African American neighborhoods. In New York City, black households making over $68,000 with a Wells Fargo mortgage were 8 times more likely to have a subprime mortgage as white households in the same bracket.
Filings in the suit include affadavits by two former loan officers attesting that they were offered bonuses to sell subprime mortgages to candidates who would have otherwise qualified for a conventional mortgage and that they targeted minority homeowners for the mortgages. Some of the more egregious claims include that some loan officers withheld client’s employment information so that they would not qualify for a conventional loan or cut and pasted credit reports from one customer into another’s application. Another loan officer talks about the teams set up to market the mortgages to African American churches.
While the judge is still waiting on more information from the city of Baltimore to determine if the lawsuit should proceed, it nonetheless remains disconcerting that a company such as Wells Fargo could engage in this kind of behavior for so long withoout anyone noticing it until now. It sounds like these practices were engaged in at a widespread level for long periods of time. Why didn’t anyone say anything until so many years later?
It is hard to conceive of anything that could be done to make up for the level of discrimination that took place and the harm done, should the lawsuit be allowed to proceed and Wells Fargo found guilty. Cases like this one are nonetheless a good reminder of the importance of educating consumers on financial products– hopefully if people learn about mortgages, insurance products, and/or reverse mortgages, for example, they will be less likely to fall victim to scams or unfair deals.
Tags: African American, African Americans, Baltimore, conventioanl mortgage, discrimination, foreclosure, Illinois, insurance products, lawsuit, minorities, minority, Mortgage, NAACP, New York, reverse mortgage, subprime mortgage, wells fargo
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Friday, May 15th, 2009
 Obama unveils the first part of his housing rescue plan in February. The additions to Obama’s housing plan that were laid out on Thursday are designed to make it easier for homeowners to sell houses that are worth less than their mortgages. The initiative will help incentivize short sales as well as “deed in lieu” transactions. These proposals will hopefully help assist borrowers who cannot be helped by a loan modification.
“The government will pay mortgage-servicing companies up to $1,000 and borrowers up to $1,500 for successful short sales or “deeds in lieu” transactions.”(WSJ) The government will also spend up to $1,000 to help get the holders of second mortgages to release their liens so the short sales or “deeds in lieu” transaction can be completed. In addition, additional payments will be provided to lenders, servicers, and investors in areas where home prices have been dropping to assist with loan modifications. These funds will hopefully help make investors feel more comfortable modifying loans, rather than being overly concerned that they will face additional losses if the modified loans redefault.
So far 75% of loans are currently being covered by the plan, including those by Bank of America, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Other companies are evaluating whether they wish to participate.
Given that short sales have accounted for 15-20% of existing home sales this year according to the National Association of Realtors, this new program should provide benefits to investors, lenders, servicers and borrowers looking to sell homes or find other ways out of underwater mortgages and tough financial situations. Hopefully it will help make short sales easier to complete and make foreclosure easier to avoid.
If the popularity of the loan modification plan unveiled by the administration nearly three months ago is any indication, this program should be a huge success.
The plan also has positive ramifications for the reverse mortgage industry due to the new HECM for Purchase program. Negotiating a short sale is often part of the process of a reverse mortgage when the borrower is trying to avoid a foreclosure or underwater on their previous mortgage. Hopefully, this plan will make reverse mortgages that fall into this category easier to obtain as well.
Tags: Bank of America, deed in lieu, deeds in lieu, hecm, HECM for purchase, hecm for purchase program, homeowners, housing plan, Housing-rescue plan, J.P. Morgan Chase, loan modification, mortgage-servicing, Obama, reverse mortgage, reverse mortgages, short sale, short sales, wells fargo
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Thursday, May 7th, 2009
 Federal officials announced today that 10 of the country’s largest banks will need to raise $75 billion in capital. Banks that are required to raise new capital have been given a month to tell regulators their plan to raise the capital and six months to finish their plans. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner discussed that after the completion of these stress tests “banks can get back to the business of banking” and “should result in a more efficient, stronger banking system”.
There are a few ways that the big banks can raise capital including selling assets or issuing new shares. Wells Fargo said it would raise $6 billion through the sale of common stock while Bank of America will try to raise part of its $34 billion by selling off smaller divisions.
While $75 billion is a sizable amount to us small folk, many analysts predicted numbers as high as $200 billion for banks to raise to get themselves out of this mess. Let’s hope its enough.
Tags: Bank of American, banks, capital, raise, stocks, stress test, wells fargo
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Friday, May 1st, 2009
 A piece of legislation supported by President Barack Obama failed in the Senate yesterday. The measure, which would have allowed judges to reduce the value of some mortgages in bankruptcy proceedings, failed 45-51. The WSJ called it Obama’s first big legislative defeat. The bill had previously passed in the House.
The bill would have allowed a bankruptcy judge to reduce a mortgage to reflect a home’s market value — known as a “cramdown.” Banks such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup, had supported the legislation, even as community bankers and two major credit-union groups opposed it.
Tags: Bank of America, bankruptcy, Citigroup, legislation, Mortgage, President Barack Obama, reverse mortgage, Senate, Washington, wells fargo
Posted in Consumer News, Industry News | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
The top 3 lenders in the reverse mortgage market, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Financial Freedom posted significant year-on-year volume declines in the month of November at -32%, -8%, and -21%, respectively.
Considering that year-on-year volume for the industry declined only 6%, this means that these large lenders gave up a lot of ground to smaller competitors.
The biggest gainer among the top ten was World Alliance, aka Senior Lending Network, who posted a 43% increase.
Full report below for the top ten.
| Rank |
Rank change |
Lender |
Nov-07 Volume |
Nov-08 Volume |
% change |
| 1 |
= |
WELLS FARGO |
1729 |
1170 |
-32% |
| 2 |
+4 |
BANK OF AMERICA |
608 |
561 |
-8% |
| 3 |
-1 |
FINANCIAL FREEDOM |
347 |
275 |
-21% |
| 4 |
-1 |
WORLD ALLIANCE FINANCIAL |
176 |
252 |
43% |
| 5 |
= |
COUNTRYWIDE BANK |
173 |
201 |
16% |
| 6 |
+10 |
ONE REVERSE MORTGAGE |
139 |
119 |
-14% |
| 7 |
= |
METLIFE BANK |
117 |
118 |
1% |
| 8 |
+7 |
URBAN FINANCIAL |
104 |
111 |
7% |
| 9 |
-5 |
LIBERTY REVERSE |
93 |
91 |
-2% |
| 10 |
+4 |
1ST AAA REVERSE MORTGAGE |
89 |
77 |
-13% |
Tags: reverse mortgage, volume, wells fargo
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