Wells Fargo was the Big Kahuna of purchase lending in 2019 while Quicken Loans was the refi king, Inside Mortgage Finance found…

Quicken Loans was the top ranked FHA producer for the year with $17.4 billion, followed by United Wholesale Mortgage ($13.1 billion) and Freedom Mortgage ($8.7 billion).

Net income at Mr. Cooper was aided in a major way by a $285 million recovery tied to deferred tax assets. Meanwhile, on the origination front, the company funded $12.6 billion in product during 4Q19, up 5.8% from 3Q19.

Non-agency jumbos accounted for 17.4% of originations in 2019, up slightly from a 17.2% share the year prior...

For the full year, production soared by 42.7% to $216.8 billion, also a record. The driver: Strong refinance volume driven by low interest rates.

As one servicing broker put it: “It’s brutal. No other way to say it…”

In general, lenders and issuers are anticipating another strong year for originations but less than the $2.375 trillion the industry funded in 2019.

Bank of America added $9.13 billion to its MBS portfolio, which nearly matched the $9.60 billion increase for the entire industry.

Private MI business fell off 7.6% from the third to the fourth quarter, however, a period when FHA and VA activity continued to climb.

But there were some hiccups in the overall trend. For starters, refi loans originated in the retail channel actually had slightly lower average credit scores than correspondent- and broker-originated refinances…