MetLife sees its home loan future in reverse

Last year, several major reverse mortgage lenders – Seattle Mortgage, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Financial Freedom – announced they would stop accepting reverse mortgage applications to focus more “core” operations such as retail banking and conventional, “forward” mortgages.

This week, MetLife announced it would do the opposite – exit the forward space yet continue to originate reverse mortgages. It is now one of the largest “reverse” players in the country.

MetLife Home Loans said it would continue to service its current mortgage customers and honor all contractual commitments for loans in process.

MetLife’s entire retail banking business, including mortgages, represented under two percent of its 2011 operating earnings as of September 30. The company’s main operations are insurance, annuities and employee benefit programs.