Mortgage Lender
Definition of "Mortgage Lender"
The party advancing money to a borrower at the closing table in exchange for a note evidencing the borrowers debt and obligation to repay. Retail, Wholesale, and Correspondent Lenders: Lenders who perform all the loan origination functions themselves are called 'retail lenders/' Lenders who have certain functions performed for them by mortgage brokers or correspondents are called 'wholesale lenders.' Many large lenders have both retail and wholesale divisions. Wholesale lenders will have different departments to deal with correspondent lenders and mortgage brokers. The division of functions is shown in the table on the next page. Correspondent lenders are typically small and depend on wholesale lenders to protect them against pipeline risk. A correspondent lender locks a price for a borrower at the same time as the correspondent locks with a wholesale lender. Mortgage Banks Versus Portfolio Lenders: Mortgage banks sell all the loans they make in the secondary market because they don't have the long-term funding sources necessary to hold mortgages permanently. They fund loans by borrowing from banks or by selling short-term notes, repaying when the loans are sold. Mortgage banks now dominate the U.S. market. Of the 10 largest lenders in 2002, nine were mortgage banks and only one was a portfolio lender. However, most of the large mortgage banks are affiliated with large commercial banks. Portfolio lenders include commercial banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, and credit unions. They are sometimes referred to as 'depository institutions' because they offer deposit accounts to the public. Deposits provide a relatively stable funding source that allows these institutions to hold loans permanently in their portfolios. Mortgage banks often offer better terms on fixed-rate mortgages than portfolio lenders, while the reverse is more likely for adjustable rate mortgages. It would be a mistake to place too much reliance on this rule, however, because the variability within each group is very wide.
Popular Mortgage Terms
An agreement by the lender not to exercise the legal right to foreclose in exchange for an agreement by the borrower to a payment plan that will cure the borrowers delinquency. ...
Protection for a borrower against the danger that rates will rise between the time the borrower applies for a loan and the time the loan closes. Rate protection can take the form of a ...
A lenders requirements regarding how information about income and assets must be provided by the applicant and how it will be used by the lender. The following categories have evolved in ...
Also called variable or flexible rate mortgage, an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) is a mortgage where the interest rate is not constant, but changes over time by the mortgage lender. ...
The sum of all interest payments to date or over the life of the loan. This is not a good measure of the cost of credit to the borrower because it does not include upfront cash payments and ...
Fees collected by a loan officer from a borrower that are lower than the target fees specified by the lender or mortgage broker who employs the loan officer. An underage is the opposite ...
The interest rate used to calculate the mortgage payment. The interest rate and the payment rate are often the same, but they need not be. They must be the same if the payment is fully ...
A letter from a lender verifying that the price and other terms of a loan have been locked. Borrowers who lock through a mortgage broker should always demand to see the lock commitment ...
The amount the borrower promises to repay, as set forth in the loan contract. The loan amount may exceed the original amount requested by the borrower if he or she elects to include ...
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