BankUnited of Miami Lakes, Fla., has exited the retail mortgage origination channel. It originated loans through its retail banking branches in Florida and New York.
The bank was not able to generate enough volume because of its small footprint, said Mary Harris, senior vice president of marketing and public relations.
There were layoffs but BankUnited would not disclose how many. It was only last March that the company hired Joseph Stanganelli as the national sales leader for its residential mortgage division in an effort to build business.
BankUnited is the second lender in the past two weeks to exit retail, joining Ditech, a unit of Walter Investment Management Corp.
Effective Jan. 13, BankUnited has stopped accepting new applications, but it will close all the loans in its pipeline, Harris said.
The bank is keeping its other mortgage businesses open, including its national residential mortgage purchase operation, its mortgage warehouse business and its servicing business.
BankUnited would not release full-year 2015 volume figures. However, according to its third-quarter 10-Q, there were $454 million originated through the retail channel and $2.5 billion of whole loan purchases in its portfolio.
Harris said the company offered a full spectrum of residential lending products including conforming loans sold in the secondary market, but the 10-Q said BankUnited's whole loan purchase channel bought jumbo loans with credit scores over 700 and loan-to-value ratios of 80% or below.
