As regulation forces the reverse industry to evolve, there are many ways that we’ll eventually see the impacts. We’ve been tracking a declining number of originators for quite some time, which is the expected result of many changes pushing revenue down and costs up for the smallest reverse originators.
The potential offset to that trend is just starting to show up, as TPO originations by non-FHA approved originators (working through an approved sponsor) grew dramatically in March. The chart below shows this activity by sponsor for the first three months of 2011:
While this activity wasn’t enough to keep broker/wholesale endorsements from falling -0.7% in March to 2,785, much less keep up with direct/retail endorsements that grew 10.8%, the sheer growth from February is astounding. At the most pessimistic it should ease the declines in the broker/wholesale channel, and an optimist might hope for a rebound given the potential of credit unions and community banks.
From a lender perspective, we saw 4 of the top 10 lenders hit 12 month highs in the month as the industry set its own high water mark for the same period.
- Wells Fargo captured 31.9% of all loans through both retail and wholesale channels, well above their 12 month share average of 26.4%
- Generation was whisper close to breaking double digits in market share at 9.7%
- One Reverse continues to grow their direct lending business, up 22.2% in the past 12 months and showing a 5% market share
- Sun West is on the comeback trail and back in the top 10 this month for the first time since November
One housekeeping note this month: As we noted in our Retail Leaders newsletter last week, we are not yet able to track non-FHA approved TPO originators individually, so you’ll notice a row in our lender listing of “Unknown”. That’s a summary line for all loans in this category for now, until we can track these individually (we’re expecting a few months).
And if you’re in DC for NRMLA’s Policy Conference, we’ll see you at the cocktail reception!
Click the image below to access the full report:
