There are different types of money lenders and this article deals with the different types of money lenders present in the market scenario. Some of the different types of money lenders are
Mortgage bankers
Mortgage brokers
Wholesale Lenders
Portfolio lenders
Direct Lenders
Correspondents
Banks and Savings & Loans
Credit Union
Mortgage Bankers
A mortgage banker is a lender that can originate loans which they can sell to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, jumbo loan investors, and others. Thus a company who is capable of doing the above function is termed as a mortgage banker; however their size differs based on the different companies. Some mortgage bankers service the loans to the customers which they have originated while others do not. Most of the brokers have wholesale lending divisions. Some of the examples of mortgage bankers are Countrywide Home loans and Wells Fargo Mortgage. In this example one company is associated with a bank while the other is not. Many companies call themselves as mortgage bankers while some are really bankers but as far as the case of the others is considered it is mostly marketing.
Mortgage Brokers
Mortgage brokers are institutions who originate loans with the intention that they would give the amount to wholesale lending institutions. A broker has contacts or a set relationship with these wholesale lending institutions. Underwriting and the activity of funding takes place at the wholesale lender. They deal with the institutions that have wholesale loan department.
Wholesale Lenders
Many of the mortgage brokers and even the portfolio lenders act as wholesale lenders. They cater to the need of mortgage brokers for the origination of loan. There are some wholesale lenders that do not even possess their retail branches as they rely on mortgage brokers for the loans.
Portfolio lenders
An institution which lends own money and originates loans for itself is referred to as portfolio lender. Thus in this way they are lending their own portfolio of loans and they are not concerned about being able to sell them on the secondary market. Thus they need not abide by the rules of Fannie/Freddie guidelines and thus they can create their own rules for ascertaining the credit worthiness. Usually portfolio lenders are large banks. Only a particular part of their loan programs are portfolio products. Incase they are providing fixed rate of loans or government loans, and then they are definitely engaging in mortgage banking as well as portfolio lending.