California-based mortgage lender loanDepot made changes to its credit line agreement with two of its warehouse lenders going into 2023 amid shrinking origination volume in the previous year.
In late December, Dallas, Texas-headquartered NexBank adjusted the revolving credit note to $200 million from $268 million in the previous year, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated December 29. Nexbank has been extending lines of credit to loanDepot since 2014.
“On December 22, 2021, borrower (loanDepot) executed an eighteenth amended and restated promissory note in the principal amount of $268,000,000 in favor of Lender (NexBank), evidencing the loan,” according to the filing.
In addition, New York-based Signature Bank will continue to provide loanDepot with a revolving credit of $300 million and added “an option to increase up to $500 million upon mutual consent,” the filing said.
Both agreements are secured by loanDepot’s mortgage servicing rights of Freddie Mac loans. The California lender’s servicing rights increased to $2.2 billion as of September 30, up from $2 billion during the same period in 2021, according to its latest earnings statement.
The company also completed the transition of its servicing portfolio to an in-house platform in the third quarter of 2022, which is “expected to drive higher levels of customer satisfaction and lower costs,” Frank Martell, loanDepot’s president and CEO told analysts in its third quarter earnings call.
In 2022, loanDepot terminated a master repurchase agreement (MRA) with J.V.B. Financial Group and scaled back an MRA with Jefferies Funding. As of September 30, the lender’s total funding capacity with its lending partners decreased by 42.4% to $5.7 billion from the previous quarter’s $9.9 billion.
As with all lenders across the country, loan origination volume dropped in its latest quarterly earnings, falling to $9.8 billion from $13.9 billion in the third quarter of 2021.
Total funding capacity with its lending partners decreased by 42.4% to $5.7 billion on September 30, down from the previous quarter’s $9.9 billion.
loanDepot is the seventh-largest mortgage lender in the nation, according to Inside Mortgage Finance‘s rankings. Amid its efforts to downsize its workforce and consolidate operational functions, the lender has been diversifying its less interest rate-sensitive mortgage products.
Most recently, loanDepot launched a home equity line of credit (HELOC) product and formed a joint venture with National HomeCorp, a Georgia-based homebuilder specializing in affordable single-family homes, to create NHC Mortgage. The goal is to provide credit to underserved communities.