National City Hits $100B.(loan administration milestone at National City Mortgage)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

The plaques are still up on the wall at National City Mortgage's offices that commemorate a major loan administration milestone. In 1992, the company struck the $10 billion mark.

Ten years later, the company has reached a new milestone. In April, National City announced its portfolio had hit the $100 billion mark, joining the mega-servicer club. At the end of the second quarter, National City was the nation's 12th largest mortgage servicer, according to MSN affiliate the Quarterly Data Report.

John Gellhausen, president and chief operating officer of the company, said that the portfolio included about 865,000 loans as of mid-April, nearly double the number National City serviced three years ago.

"While impressive, the size of our portfolio isn't nearly as important as the attributes that helped us get here: caring about doing what's right for our customers, hiring and retaining the best people in the business, and a strategy that positioned us well for the best interest rate climate in a generation," he said.

Jack Case, National City Mortgage's executive vice president with responsibility for mortgage servicing, told MSN that the milestone "is just an opportunity to recognize how far we have come."

He said that the $100 billion threshold is not all that significant in terms of achieving economies of scale. Existing service bureau technology helps lenders with $10 billion or $15 billion keep pace on that score, he said. (National City relies on Alltel for servicing automation).

But reaching $100 billion makes it easier for National City to make new capital investments that improve the servicing operation beyond what a service bureau can offer, he said. And that helps improve productivity, especially ...