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Chicago-based nonbank mortgage lender Rate on Wednesday promoted a top-producing executive, Shant Banosian, to serve as president of its retail mortgage lending division following several challenging years for two of its joint ventures.
Rate’s retail mortgage business is one of 15 companies or divisions under the Rate umbrella, which also include joint mortgage ventures with real estate brokerage titans Anywhere Real Estate and Compass; AI technology companies Gateless and Prajna, title insurer Advocus; home, auto and life insurance provider Rate Insurance LLC; and a personal lending division.
Rate says its retail mortgage business had been the only company without a president. Like the 14 other company or division presidents, Banosian will report to Rate CEO and President Victor Ciardelli.
Victor Ciardelli
“With Shant joining me in top leadership, we’re doubling down on our vision to make homeownership more cost-effective, faster, smarter and more accessible than ever,” Ciardelli said in a statement.
Rate — the “doing business as” name of Guaranteed Rate Inc. since the company rebranded in July — sponsors 2,152 mortgage loan originators working out of 467 retail branch offices, according to records maintained by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS).
Banosian, who served as executive vice president of sales in Rate’s Waltham, Massachusetts office, is himself licensed in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Rate credits Banosian with funding more than $10 billion in mortgages over the past 20 years, including more than $1 billion in 2024 alone, which the company said makes him the number one loan officer in the country.
Shant Banosian
“The mortgage industry is evolving fast, and I am excited to build on Victor Ciardelli’s amazing vision and lead Rate Mortgage into the future,” Banosian said in a statement.
After hitting historic lows during the pandemic, mortgage rates rose dramatically in 2023 and have stayed near 7 percent. Elevated mortgage rates not only put an end to a refinancing boom, but curtailed purchase lending as many would-be sellers felt locked in to the low rate on their existing mortgage. Last year was the slowest year for existing-home sales since 1995.
Rate is privately held, so it doesn’t have to disclose its finances. But like the mortgage industry in general, Rate’s joint ventures with Compass and Anywhere have struggled to turn a profit in recent years, according to those company’s most recent annual reports.
Rate’s joint venture with Anywhere Real Estate, Guaranteed Rate Affinity, sponsors 456 loan originators who work out of 74 branch offices, according to NMLS records.
Anywhere — the real estate brokerage and franchise giant behind names like Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Corcoran, ERA, and Sotheby’s International Realty — launched its joint venture with Rate in 2017.
Guaranteed Rate Affinity generated $2 million in equity earnings for Anywhere last year, $0 in 2023, and $22 million in 2022, the company said in its 2024 annual report to investors. Anywhere valued its 49.9 percent stake in the company at $65 million as of Dec. 31, 2024, down from $67 million at the end of 2023.
OriginPointLLC, Rate’s joint venture with Compass Inc., sponsors 152 mortgage loan originators who work out of 28 branch locations and also does business as Samaritan Team, according to NMLS records.
Compass disclosed in its 2024 annual report that it’s received no dividends from its 49.9 percent ownership stake in OriginPoint for the past two years. Compass said it valued its investment in OriginPoint at $5.7 million as of Dec. 31, after recording equity losses of $12.2 million in 2022, $3.3 million in 2023 and $600,000 in 2024.
Rate had previously operated a mortgage joint venture with @propeties, ProperRate, which Compass gained a stake in as part of its $444 million acquisition of @properties and Christie’s International Real Estate.
In its most recent annual report to investors, Compass said ProperRate was consolidated into OriginPoint in February.
Launched in 2020, by the summer of 2024 Proper Rate was licensed in 21 states and sponsored 49 mortgage loan originators working out of five branch locations, according to NMLS records.
After having its best year ever in 2020 — Rate and its joint ventures funded more than $74 billion in loans — in early 2021 Rate acquired Stearns Stearns Holdings LLC to further its goal of becoming the nation’s biggest lender.
In addition to getting Rate into the wholesale lending business, the deal was aimed at bolstering its retail loan origination and helping it scale its joint venture platform.
But Rate ended up shutting down Stearns Lending’s wholesale mortgage division in January 2022, laying off 348 employees.
Rate declined to comment on whether its retail mortgage business is profitable, or on its joint ventures with Anywhere and Compass.
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