Replenishment Poses Challenge.(News Analysis)

Byline: Paul Muolo

Washington-It's starting to get lonely at the top for the "big five" of residential servicing. Then again, that might be OK with them.

In the world of residential loan servicing it's all about economies-of-scale: the more units a company can shovel into their servicing factories, the cheaper their costs and the better the profits. At least, that's what the experts have been telling us for years.

Before he left the mortgage industry with his tail between his legs, Countrywide Home Loans chief Angelo Mozilo hoped that his firm would achieve a 30% share within a few years. CFC's new owner, Bank of America, appears to have a crack at meeting such an aggressive goal with its current share of 21.68%.

Thanks to the meltdown in both the mortgage and credit markets and the resulting M&A binge - some of which was assisted by the federal government - the nation's top five residential servicers now control a stunning 67.06% of the market, according to figures compiled by Mortgage Servicing News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Two years ago the top five controlled about 53% the business.

Today, when it comes to doing the monthly processing on the nation's $9.6 trillion worth of mortgage debt the market share of big five look like this: Bank of America (21.68%), Wells Fargo (17.65%), Chase (15.09%), CitiMortgage (8.49%) and Residential Capital LLC (4.14%).