Reverse mortgage brokers on the wholesale side of industry production helped boost Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) volume in October, driving endorsements up 15% during the month as retail production struggled, according to a recent analysis of industry volume by Reverse Market Insight (RMI).

With industry volume trending below 4,000 units per month for the better part of this year, October came in just under this threshold with a total of 3,912 HECM endorsements, representing a 4.7% increase from the previous month.

By channel, wholesale growth outshone the retail segment, which reported 2,159 loans for a monthly decrease of 2.7%, whereas wholesale originations were up 15.4% in October with 1,753 loans. Retail, however, continues to be larger than wholesale, at 55% of all volume in October, according to RMI’s analysis.

October was a notable growth month for some reverse mortgage lenders, including Longbridge Financial, whose volume grew 190% from September to 58 loans.

The company, which ranked 11th by volume for the month of October, also reported the second-most wholesale units over the 12 months trailing October by adding 267 loans.

Topping the rankings for both the most wholesale and retail units added over the last 12 months trailing October was Synergy One Lending Inc. (d.b.a. Retirement Funding Solutions), which reported the addition of 572 wholesale loans and 1,038 retail loans during the period.

Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC trailed with 860 retail units added over the last 12 months, while Nationwide Equities Corporation followed close behind with 837 units; Reversemortgages.com with 571 loans; and HighTechLending Inc. with 266 retail units.

See where other lenders ranked through October 2016, including their retail and wholesale channel splits here.

Written by Jason Oliva