Arvest Mortgage hits $2 billion
Arvest Bank today announced that for the first time, Arvest Mortgage Company has originated more than $2 billion in new mortgage loans. When the $1 billion mark was achieved in June of this year, it was the earliest month the milestone was reached in 10 consecutive years. This also is the first time that Arvest Mortgage has reached the $2 billion mark, indicating growing strength in the housing market, a robust environment for refinancing, and an improving purchase-money market.
“At Arvest, our mission statement is ‘People helping people find financial solutions for life,’ and right now the record low rates are providing thousands of families in our communities an opportunity to improve their current mortgage rate, shorten their term, or buy their first home or next home. We are customer-focused and, by having over 150 mortgage lenders and a dedicated operations team situated throughout our footprint, we are there for our customers each day,” said Steven Plaisance, president and chief operating officer of Arvest Mortgage Company.
Record low rates have continued to spur refinancing throughout the mortgage industry, and a new, improved version of the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) has helped many people refinance who could not afford to in years past. The purchase-money market is also showing improvement. The industry continues to make corrections to ensure that there will be access to the long-term, fixed-rate mortgage money that mortgage companies have depended on for so many years.
Plaisance continued, “This milestone is exciting, and we look forward to working with all of our customers for years to come. At Arvest, we pride ourselves on being able to provide customers with service after the sale because we retain servicing on 99 percent of the loans we make. That means we maintain that close customer relationship after the loan closes, which allows us to help that customer again on a refinance or another home purchase.”
For three years in a row, Arvest Bank ranks “Highest Customer Satisfaction with Retail Banking in the Southwest Region” according to the recently released J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Retail Banking Satisfaction Study. Arvest Bank operates more than 240 bank branches in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas through a network of 16 locally managed banks, each with its own board of directors and management team. These banks serve customers in 90 communities with 12-hour weekday banking at most locations. Arvest also provides a wide range of banking services including loans, deposits, treasury management, asset and wealth management, life insurance, credit cards, mortgage loans and mortgage servicing. Arvest operates a mortgage company, asset management company, insurance division and mortgage servicing company. Arvest is an equal housing lender and member FDIC.