Regardless of lengthy being the #1 mortgage lender within the nation, Wells Fargo has introduced plans to shrink its mortgage enterprise.

The San Francisco-based financial institution mentioned it would exit its correspondent lending enterprise, whereas focusing extra on financial institution clients and minority communities.

Moreover, the corporate will cut back the dimensions of its mortgage servicing portfolio, wherein it collects month-to-month funds from householders.

In consequence, the corporate will considerably cut back its mortgage footprint, which had been the biggest previous to the rise of Rocket Mortgage.

Within the fourth quarter of 2017, Quicken Loans unseated Wells Fargo and mainly by no means regarded again. They modified their title to Rocket Mortgage in Might 2021.

Wells Fargo Exits Correspondent Lending

First issues first, Wells Fargo is exiting the correspondent lending enterprise, which is mainly the resale of their mortgage merchandise by third-party corporations like credit score unions.

These smaller entities “originate, underwrite and shut mortgage loans earlier than promoting them to Wells Fargo Funding,” their web site states.

Per HMDA information from Richey Might, Wells Fargo funded roughly $228.6 billion in residence loans in 2021(most up-to-date yr out there).

Of that whole, about $69 billion, or 30%, was through the correspondent lending channel.

It reveals one other $11 billion, or 5 %, originated through the wholesale lending channel, which is reserved for mortgage dealer companions.

However Wells Fargo had exited wholesale lending again in 2012, so it’s unclear if that quantity is correct.

In any case, they had been the second largest mortgage lender in the US in 2021, behind Rocket Mortgage’s $343 billion.

If we subtract the $69 billion in correspondent lending, their whole would drop to round $160 billion. We are able to ignore the wholesale numbers for now.

That may make Wells Fargo the fourth largest mortgage lender, behind Rocket, United Wholesale Mortgage, and Chase.

So nonetheless fairly giant, even with out the third-party origination quantity. However wait, there’s extra.

Wells Fargo Mortgage to Give attention to Financial institution Clients and Minorities

Whereas a CNBC article indicated Wells Fargo would “solely make residence loans to financial institution purchasers and minority debtors,” that seems to be incorrect.

Nonetheless, the corporate did say it “plans to create a extra centered Dwelling Lending enterprise aimed toward serving financial institution clients, in addition to people and households in minority communities.”

In addition they seek advice from this new technique as a “smaller, much less complicated enterprise,” which could spell extra mortgage layoffs and lowered mortgage volumes.

It’s unclear how centered they plan to get and/or how a lot smaller, but it surely’s clear they’re going to take a extra calculated strategy

This consists of “optimizing” their retail workforce to focus totally on present financial institution clients and underserved communities.

To that finish, they may deploy extra residence mortgage consultants in native minority communities, whereas investing $100 million “to advance racial fairness in homeownership.”

The corporate can even develop its Particular Goal Credit score Program (SPCP) that assists minority householders.

Wells Fargo famous again in April 2022 that it was the highest mortgage lender for “Black households” and the highest refinance lender for Black householders.

In reality, in 2020 the corporate apparently prolonged roughly the identical variety of residence buy loans to Black households as the following three largest bank-lenders mixed.

Can Anybody Nonetheless Get a Mortgage from Wells Fargo?

As talked about, Wells Fargo introduced plans to considerably shrink their residence lending enterprise.

On the similar time, they may focus extra on present financial institution clients and minority communities.

Nonetheless, this doesn’t imply you may’t get a mortgage from Wells Fargo in case you don’t match the above classes.

It simply would possibly imply that you simply received’t be receiving incoming emails or telephone calls from residence mortgage consultants at Wells Fargo.

It could additionally imply that those that do match the classes above could also be eligible for particular affords and pricing from the financial institution.

Lastly, in case you’re an present mortgage servicing buyer, it’s potential your mortgage may be transferred to a brand new mortgage servicer.

So maintain a watch out for any adjustments to make sure future mortgage funds are routed to the fitting place.

Total, this information doesn’t come as an enormous shock given Wells Fargo’s struggles of late within the residence lending house, together with alleged improper lock charges.

And given the general local weather within the mortgage house in the meanwhile, it’s not likely a shocker to see any firm scaling again.