Retail mortgage production operations became increasingly important in the third quarter of 2004 as lenders faced increasing competition for a declining volume of new originations. Through the first nine months of the year, the industry generated an estimated $870 billion of new loans through retail operations, including both branch offices and growing consumer-direct operations using the Internet and telephone call centers. That represented 42.8 percent of total originations, up from 41.3 percent for all of