He said: “There is a lot that you have to manage at this scale, (but) we were of the view that we needed to return the savings to our customers. We were one of the first to communicate that we would retroactively be applying a 50 basis point credit to all locked loans, with the exception of those that were in flight to closing.”
JD Power’s recent Primary Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction survey threw up a nugget of information that almost went unnoticed amid the clamor of the awards by revealing that traditional banks were starting to lose their edge over non-bank lenders.
Pendleton sees this as further proof of the crucial role played by independent brokers and why some wholesale lenders are prepared to have very public dust ups in order to retain their loyalty and custom.
“If you look back to pre-crisis, the broker community accounted for 50% of market share, but they just didn’t have the advocates that the retail channel and the large banks (had). They didn’t have as much of a voice and a seat at the table,” he said. Now, however, he is seeing brokers “come into the space and transition from retail to independent” in ever greater numbers.
Continuing with the peace broker theme, Pendleton offered a few, final soothing words to his (much bigger) competitors.