There are two ways to measure a mortgage lender’s size, according to Mortgage Daily: the first is the number of new mortgages they originate, and the second is how many loans they service, regardless of origination. Based on those criteria, says the publication’s Third Quarter 2010 Mortgage Lender Ranking, the two biggest lenders are on opposite coasts.
Wells Fargo (WFC), based in California, comes in at the top of the mortgage origination category, with more than $100 billion in loan originations, according to the data released Monday. It’s held the top spot for the past two quarters, and was also at the top in 2009 and 2008. Before that Countrywide held the top spot from 2004-2007, while Wells Fargo dropped to second place; in 2003 Wells Fargo had been at the top, while Countrywide was in second place.
Quicken Loans rose from Q2’s last spot in the top ten to rank eighth in Q3. SunTrust (STI), which had held the eighth slot in Q2, dropped to ninth in Q3; Flagstar (FBC) dropped from Q2’s ninth place to tenth in Q3, and MetLife (MET), which had tied Quicken at eighth place in Q2, fell off the top ten list in Q3. Other rankings for mortgage origination were unchanged.
In the loan servicing category, Bank of America Corp. (BAC) was in the top spot for Q2, the period released by Mortgage Daily, while its mortgage subsidiary Bank of America Home Loans is based in Calabasas, Calif., the parent company is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C.