Annual home-loan originations were down by more than 40 percent last year at Ally Financial Inc., and business is expected to slow even more. The company has had strong interest in the potential sale of mortgage servicing rights.
Mortgage loan production totaled $9.8 billion during the fourth quarter, according to earnings data released Tuesday.
Business picked up from the prior period, when originations totaled $8.2 billion. However, home-loan production has tumbled from the same three-month period in 2011, when Ally originated $16.5 billion.
Ally noted that the year-over-year decline reflected the exit from the correspondent lending channel.
The latest activity included $9.1 billion in prime conforming loans funded, $0.6 billion in prime non-conforming originations and $0.1 billion in government production. Refinance share was 86 percent.
For all of 2012, originations amounted to $32.5 billion, a far cry from the $56.2 billion in mortgage production previously reported for 2011.
The bank noted that loan production is expected to significantly decline after the sale of the Residential Capital LLC platform closes.
Ally said that it completed the wind down of its warehouse lending business during the fourth quarter.
“Ally Bank is exploring alternatives for the agency MSR portfolio and its mortgage business lending operation, and the bank is encouraged by the initial interest,” the report stated. “Going forward, Ally Bank will continue to originate a modest level of high-quality residential jumbo mortgages for its own portfolio through strategic third party relationships.”
Total assets within mortgage operations were cut to $14.744 billion from $17.004 billion three months earlier and $17.251 billion a year earlier.
After the planned sale of ResCap’s assets, Ally expects that it will still hold $10 billion in mortgages for its investment portfolio.
Delinquency of at least 30 days on mortgages held for investment was 3.0 percent as of the end of December, better than the prior quarter’s 3.2 percent. At the end of 2011, 30-day delinquency stood at 3.3 percent.
Outstanding repurchase claims finished December at $58 million. Ally cut its liability from $98 million at the end of the third quarter. The latest number reflected $56 million in new claims, $41 million in rescinded claims and $55 million in paid claims.
Income from the mortgage operations tumbled to $100 million from the third quarter’s $330 million. But the mortgage operations managed to swing from a fourth-quarter 2011 loss of $216 million.
“Performance in the quarter was driven by strong gain on sale revenue driven by HARP production,” Ally said.
Ally as a whole had pre-tax fourth-quarter income of less than $0.1 billion, falling from $0.3 billion three months earlier. But Ally swung from an $0.2 billion loss in the fourth-quarter 2011.
The Detroit-based company said it continues to fully cooperate with the examination ordered by the bankruptcy court in the bankruptcy case of ResCap. Ally said it is focused on collecting repayment on its remaining secured debt and other claims.
