Ditech Mortgage Corporation’s correspondent lending division is shifting its attention to focus on services for community banks and credit unions.
“ditech seeks to purchase closed residential mortgage loans from financial institutions with either delegated or non-delegated UW options,” said John Davis, senior vice president of correspondent lending at ditech.
“We will customize our services to supplement each institution’s unique operations capabilities, and our community banking and credit union Customers will have full access to our wide breadth of technology, underwriting, processing, servicing and marketing expertise,” Davis said.
ditech lost market share during the financial crisis for pre-crash subprime lending. When the bubble broke in 2006, it brought big losses for both ditech and those who invested in the mortgage-backed securities.
However, the company has recently launched a comeback into the market, including a three-pronged business plan building its direct consumer lending, retail lending and correspondent lending.
When the company released the plans, it also released details on how it plans to build a base in one of its new areas of focus: correspondent lending. Housingwire Magazine’s October 2013 cover hailed the “return of the correspondent lender”, and now it appears that ditech wants to jump on the bandwagon.
But ditech is the not first correspondent lender to capitalize on this market share. BOK Financial’s (BOKF) correspondent lending operation is unique in two ways: they do not cross-sell to borrowers, and they refer refinancing back to small banks and credit unions. To ensure this commitment, the bank's correspondent lending division goes under the name FirstLand Mortgage Servicing.
New Penn Financial’s new mini-correspondent business model was aimed to cater to community banks and credit unions. The funding allows those lenders to close in their own name, instead of listing New Penn in the mortgage documents.
