Area lending co-op reaches $1 billion in serviced loans

Members Mortgage Services, a mortgage servicing cooperative owned and operated by credit unions in Kansas and throughout the region, recently reached the $1 billion mark in loans serviced, according to a news release.

Established in 2004 by Credit Union of America and Heartland Credit Union, Members Mortgage Services is owned by 29 regional credit unions. The organization, which employs more than two dozen people, reached the $500 million milestone in loans serviced in 2012.

Glenda Burkett, Credit Union of America’s vice president of marketing and business development, said Wednesday that the mortgage organization’s success is partly due to its localized ties.

“With Members Mortgage Services, customers are able to keep a local connection for the services needs they might have for their loan,” Burkett said. “A lot of other mortgages get sold to larger wholesalers and banks, which puts customers at a disadvantage because they lose their local contacts, even though many of those loans originate at local banks.”

Noting that the average Kansas home loan is in the neighborhood of $125,000, Burkett said the $1 billion total represents a large number of mortgages over the past decade-plus.

“We’re growing quickly thanks to mortgage rates being very low,” Members Mortgage Services CEO Todd Brunner said in the release. “That is leading to a lot of new mortgages. Rates will rise eventually, but they’ll probably stay low for at least the next 18 to 24 months.”

Heartland, which has offices in Wichita, Haven and Newton, says it has more than 21,000 members and $252 million in assets.

This story was originally published July 15, 2015 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Area lending co-op reaches $1 billion in serviced loans."