After a year of challenge in the reverse mortgage industry, the major lenders in the industry look a bit different for calendar year 2023 when compared with recent years past. Reduced volume, a challenging mortgage rate environment and industry consolidation has contributed to some of the broader changes.

Here are the top 10 Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved lenders in the reverse mortgage industry for the calendar year 2023, based on data compiled by Reverse Market Insight (RMI).

Consolidation was the name of the game

Finance of America Reverse (FAR) initially announced its intent to acquire industry-leading reverse mortgage lender American Advisors Group (AAG) in December 2022, and the deal closed early last year.

For the rankings, this allowed the FAR and AAG entities to be combined, as the new parent company consolidated its corporate infrastructure to onboard AAG personnel and processes, which the company later said in Q2 2023 had impacted its financial performance.

Mutual of Omaha Mortgage maintained its position in the no. 2 slot on the leaderboard, and is interestingly the only company within the top 10 to grow its FHA-backed Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) volume when compared to all other companies within the top 10 threshold, based on RMI data encompassing FHA-approved lenders. Mutual of Omaha saw its HECM volume grow 8% over year-end 2022 levels and saw its market share more than double to 20.4%.

All other top 10 companies endured volume losses between 31% and 62%, with the latter applying to Austin, Texas-based Open Mortgage. That company also announced its exit from the reverse mortgage business at the end of 2023, with CEO Scott Gordon citing lower origination volumes combined with lower closing pull-through rates as the primary reasons for the decision.

Other industry professionals lamented the company’s exit, especially given its long-time top 10 leadership position in the space.

Guild Mortgage found its way onto the top 10 in 2023 due to its acquisition of Cherry Creek Mortgage early in the year, with both companies having a high enough volume level to effectively earn two separate slots on RMI’s leaderboard.

Looking ahead

Industry professionals in different capacities who spoke to RMD at the end of 2023 will be keeping a close eye on performance metrics and lender activities to see how the business will continue into the new year. RMI President John Lunde cited Mutual of Omaha as a company to watch.

“It will be fascinating to see how the lender changes evolve the industry,” Lunde told RMD in December. “It’s clear at this point that Mutual of Omaha has been more successful in adapting this year to the changing environment, which makes perfect sense given their brand, distribution, and existing customer base.”

Companies in the space will need to take advantage of their strengths to either maintain or grow market share, which applies to newer entries in the space we saw during 2023.

“What we see as most impactful looking forward is how additional companies enter the space that share some of those same advantages and help evolve the perception of the product and industry,” Lunde added.

Some companies have also entered the reverse mortgage business, including PrimeLending, while prominent forward lender Guaranteed Rate announced it would be expanding its reverse mortgage presence. Marketing personnel at loanDepot also explained to RMD in 2023 the renewed opportunities they see in the reverse mortgage space.