Special Report: Sub Servicing.

A lot has changed in the business of servicing mortgage loans for other parties. In recent years, new players have moved in. Old players have moved on. And some of the stalwarts, like Dovenmuehle Mortgage, just keep quietly adding to their business. Through all the changes that have taken place in the mortgage industry, one constant is that the subservicing business seems to keep growing. In the third quarter of last year, the 20 largest subservicers managed 372 billion of loans for others. That was a whopping 69% increase from a year earlier, according to statistics compiled by our Database Products Group.

Some of that growth is a bit of an anomaly. Washington Mutual technically was subservicing most of the loans it acquired from HomeSide lending, but since the third quarter WaMu has purchased that portfolio. That will likely lead to a technical decline in subservicing once the formal acquisition of the HomeSide portfolio is added to WaMu's ownership.

But it is interesting to note that all of the top 20 subservicers manage more than $1 billion of loans for others. And eight have subservicing portfolios greater than ...