When it comes to mortgage lending, there's one bank that dominates the rest.
As you can see in the chart above, Wells Fargo (WFC -0.03%) outperformed the next largest mortgage originator JPMorgan Chase (JPM 0.06%) by more than a factor of two in the second quarter. For the three months ended June 30, the former underwrote a staggering $112 billion in home loans, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of $100-billion-plus in mortgage originations -- to read why this remarkable run will come to an end this quarter, click here.
Moving down the list, third largest originator Bank of America (BAC -0.21%) turned in the best performance in terms of growth, increasing its originations by 11.7% over the first quarter. At one time, the North Carolina-based lending giant was at the top of the heap. But over the last few years, it's had to abandon both its correspondent and wholesale channels, which, at one time, accounted for the majority of its volume.
On the other side of the equation, the more reasonably sized stalwart US Bancorp (USB 0.32%) saw its originations fall by 18%, due in large part to the dramatic surge in interest rates at the end of May. Despite this performance, US Bancorp continues to be one of the best-run banks in America -- click here to learn the two main reasons why.
