Wells Fargo – How do they dominate retail, yet get dominated on the wholesale level???

They are new to wholesale, at least compared to the rest of them. Give them a year and watch out.

Wells has always been focused on retail and not so much on wholesale. Even on the forward side this is true. They may slowly climb a bit on the wholesale but they won't jump tremendously. They take what they get.

Wells Fargo does not seek wholesale business aggressively. They also have a practice of recruiting high-producing loan agents away from brokers by promising a base salary or draw as well as a stream of leads supplied by the bank’s branch network.nnBank of America, which is more active in the wholesale channel, also is recruiting loan agents away from brokers in a manner similar to Wells Fargo. Our company has lost several originators to these two banks.nnUnfortunately, the new regulatory regime, including licensing of all non-bank originators, favors banks at the expense of brokers. Look for more brokers to merge or go out of business in 2010.

Financial Freedom originally had signed up thousands of correspondents, including many that rarely originated a reverse mortgage. FF wisely terminated its relationship with most of its brokers due to lack of acceptable volume during the transition period. Many of those firms, ours included, had issues with FF’s pricing and service and shifted our business elsewhere. Others simply weren’t committed to the RM business to an extent sufficient for the relationship to be profitable.nnRecently, we have been contacted by an FF rep to let us know FF is interested in reestablishing our relationship. 2010 promises to be an interesting year.

Financial Freedom’s numberss prove that once an originator is used to your software and forms even epically horrible service does not drive them away.