Banker & Tradesman file photo
After discontinuing mortgage lending earlier this year, Santander Bank has formed a partnership with Rocket Mortgage to provide home loans for the bank’s customers.
Rocket Mortgage will be Santander’s “exclusive preferred mortgage provider” for its customers, the bank said in a statement today. Through the partnership, Santander’s customers will receive exclusive discounts and dedicated resources at Rocket Mortgage during the mortgage process.
“At Santander, we place the customer at the center of our business, and I’m pleased to be working with Rocket to deliver a convenient and simplified digital mortgage experience for our customers,” Patrick Smith, Santander’s head of consumer and business banking, said in the statement. “Our relationship with Rocket Mortgage is another example of how Santander Bank is evolving our business and continuing to pursue opportunities for our customers to save, invest and manage their money at Santander.”
Santander has a link on its website that will direct the bank’s customers to Rocket Mortgage’s site to apply for a loan online. Customers who follow the link have the option to submit a request to work with a home loan expert instead.
Rocket Mortgage has a team dedicated to working with Santander customers, the statement said. Both online applicants and those who work through a home loan expert will be able to contact Rocket Mortgage by phone, email or online chat.
In addition to dedicated resources for Santander clients, Rocket Mortgage will provide discounts on loan costs and closing costs. Discounts include a lender credit of $500 and a 0.625 percent interest rate reduction as a loan-level price adjustment, according to the website. Enhanced discounts will be available for Santander Private clients and employees who close loans within the program, the statement said.
“This relationship between Rocket Mortgage and Santander is a perfect fit,” Bob Walters, CEO of Rocket Mortgage, said in the statement. “Both companies are passionate about delivering exceptional client experiences. Rocket has spent decades building industry-leading technology to make every step in the mortgage process easier. We’re excited to offer a world-class experience to Santander clients. This is just the beginning of what we believe will be a long relationship between our companies as we innovate together to develop more ways to delight our clients.”
Santander Bank has nearly 2 million clients, primarily in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The bank has around 160 branches in Massachusetts.
Through the first six months of 2022, Rocket Mortgage ranked eighth in Massachusetts for number of residential purchase mortgages processed and second for number of refinances, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. Last year, Rocket Mortgage topped all lenders with more than $8.9 billion in total residential volumes in Massachusetts and was the state’s top refinance lender.
