Lenders insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. saw their originations volume bump up to $181 billion in 2015 from $140 billion in 2014, HMDA data show.

Almost 2,500 lenders (2,476) are counted in the FDIC category in LendingPatterns™. However, this doesn’t include all lenders insured by FDIC. The “CFPB Lenders” category includes mortgages made by firms with assets of more than $10 billion, including many of the country’s biggest banks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, etc.), which will be looked at in another blog.

The FDIC lenders took 1.2 million mortgage applications last year and originated  830,000 mortgages, with an additional 29,000 counted in the “purchased” category, which generally means correspondent lending.

That comes to 70 percent of apps originated, and another 2.5 percent purchased. Denials were 12 percent of applications, with the balance in the withdrawn, incomplete and other categories.

More than half or originations were sold into the secondary market, with non-agency investors being the largest category, at 33 percent of dollars. Fannie Mae bought 13 percent of FDIC lender production, with Freddie Mac at 10 percent and Ginnie Mae having three percent share. About 42 percent of dollar volume was not sold but remained on lender portfolios.

HomeStreet Bank, Seattle, which has $5.4 billion in assets, led the FDIC lender rankings of originations at $7.1 billion, up from 2014’s $4.5 billion, when it also led the category

Fremont Bank, Fremont, Calif and George Mason Mortgage, Fairfax, Va., a subsidiary of Cardinal Bank, were in a virtual tie for second at $3.5 billion in originations for 2015. These two were second and third in 2014 as well, with George Mason at $3 billion, while Fremont Bank took the bronze at $2.6 billion.

Looking solely at 2015 origination dollars, FDIC lenders made 66 percent of their home loans to whites, with another 23.1 percent combined marked “unknown” or “NA” and the balance going to minorities. Asians had the largest share of the minority groups at 4.3 percent, followed by Hispanics at 3.6 percent and blacks at about 2.5 percent.

The great bulk of the origination dollars was conventional, at 84 percent. Of the government programs, the Federal Housing Administration led in share with about 8.5 percent, up from 2014’s 6.5 percent.

Non-owner-occupied originations made up a good share of lending in the occupancy  category, at nearly 19 percent, down from 21 percent in 2014.

Purchase money granted outpaced refinancing share for 2015, at 58 percent to 37 percent.  This was an improvement for refis from 2014, when the split was 63 percent to 32 percent. Home improvement made up the rest of 2015 volume, about 4.8 percent.

Jumbo mortgages had 30 percent of 2015 market share at FDIC lenders.

First liens averaged $231,000, up from $215,000 in 2014, while subordinate liens averaged $75,000 apiece, up from $70,000 in 2014.

Upper income borrowers took more than half of the financing dollars, indicating  they bought higher-priced homes. Their 53 percent share was followed by middle income borrowers at 16 percent, while the low and moderate income categories had a combined total of 12 percent.

 (Mark Fogarty is a journalist and analyst who has been covering the mortgage industry for more than 30 years.)