During the third quarter, Bank of America Corp. reported more residential production than any other lender. In July, BoA acquired Countrywide Financial Corp. -- which had held the title of biggest mortgage lender during most of the past five years.
As Countrywide was winding down operations as an independent company during the second quarter, Wells Fargo & Co. swooped in and grabbed the title of biggest lender. But BoA's combined results enabled it to wrestle the top spot away in the third quarter.
With its planned acquisition of Wachovia Corp. later this year, however, No. 2 Wells Fargo will become a formidable challenger to BoA as the biggest lender. Combined, W&W's third-quarter originations were within $0.1 billion of BoA's.
No. 3 JPMorgan Chase & Co. will only see its position strengthen with its acquisition of Washington Mutual Bank. While WaMu hasn't reported third-quarter activity, fundings were likely well below the second quarter's $9 billion and probably less than the $7 billion reported by No. 10 Flagstar Bank.
An emerging company with the potential to become a $1 billion player is NetMore America Inc., which reported $100 million in October originations -- potentially signaling more than $1 billion in annual production.
No. 5 Residential Capital LLC, however, is warning that it may not survive.
Rank - Company - Originations
1. BoA $58 billion
2. Wells Fargo $51 billion
3. JPMorgan $40 billion
4. Citigroup $22 billion
5. ResCap $11 billion
6. SunTrust $8 billion
7. PHH Mortgage $8 billion
8. U.S. Bancorp $8 billion
9. Wachovia $7 billion
10. Flagstar $7 billion
Industry-wide third-quarter originations tumbled 31 percent from the second quarter, based on an analysis of overall industry activity. Compared to the third-quarter 2007, industry production was down 42 percent. -- MortgageDaily.com
