Wholesale reverse mortgage volume faired better than the retail side of the business in August.  According to data from RM Insight, wholesale volume was down 2.7% compared to retail endorsement volume being down 17% in August.

The most interesting aspect of the data is seeing how much Genworth’s wholesale business picked up.  If you look at the top 5 lenders for August, Genworth had the second largest volume in units, behind only MetLife.

The real question is where did this volume come from?

After the Senior Lending Network halted applications in July, their wholesale volume dropped (obviously) and it looks like Genworth was able to pick up a lot of their business.  The chart below shows that while its wholesale business started off slowly, things have started picking up over the last two months.

It’s interesting to look at how Genworth’s business has changed since it acquired Liberty Reverse Mortgage.  At that point, the business was almost entirely retail and Genworth paid $50 million for the platform.  Two years later, their retail business has tanked for the most part but their wholesale business is going strong.

Wholesale Leaders – August 2009