California-based mortgage lender loanDepot has hired military advocate Bryan Bergjans as part of an effort to boost its lending capacity in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) space.
Bergjans joined the company this month as its national director of military growth and strategy. Before that, Bergjans spent eight years at Caliber Home Loans, including stints as national director of military and veteran lending and as head of retail business development.
Bergjans serves the U.S. Navy Reserves as the readiness officer for Navy Cargo Handling Battalion 11 HQ in Jacksonville, Florida.
loanDepot executive vice president John Bianchi said the hiring reinforces the company’s commitment to VA lending.
“Our ultimate goal is to ensure more of our nation’s servicemen and women can benefit from the advantages offered by V.A. mortgage products, and with Bryan on our team, we are poised to become the premier home loan provider for the servicemembers and Veterans of the Armed Forces,” Bianchi said in a statement
Mortgage tech platform Modex shows that VA loans accounted for about 12% of the company’s mortgage origination volume over the past 12 months. By comparision, loanDepot did 69% of its business through the conventional loan channel and 3% through Federal Housing Administration (3%) loans.
In October 2023, HousingWire reported that Patton Gade, the country’s top-producing loan officer for VA home loans in 2022, had left loanDepot to join multichannel lender UMortgage.
Bergjans is the second major hire to be announced by loanDepot in September. The company also appointed Nancy Smith to lead its Colorado and Wyoming branches as regional vice president of in-market retail. Smith held prior sales roles at companies such as Bank of America, MetLife Home Loans, Homeowners Financial Group and Caliber Home Loans.
Earlier this year, loanDepot expanded its sales leadership team by adding Justin Andrews and Jeff Wilkish. Both were most recently at Movement Mortgage.
In second-quarter 2024, loanDepot reduced its net loss to $16 million, down from a $39.5 million loss in Q1 2024. The lender produced $6 billion in mortgages from April to June, up from $4.5 billion in the previous three months.