Mortgage volume shrunk by more than half at a North Carolina-based retail and investment bank.
According to its fourth quarter supplemental information, Bank of America originated $18.4 billion in mortgages, plunging 53% compared to the third quarter’s total of $39.5 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2002, the total was at $31.9 billion.
Retail mortgage originations accounted for $11.7 billion of the total, sinking 61% from the third quarter, said the bank. Meanwhile, wholesale volume of $6.7 billion contributed the rest of the total, and was nearly a third below the previous quarter’s level.
For all of 2003, the North Carolina lender reported volume of $131.1 billion, jumping from $88 billion the prior year.
Loans serviced amounted to $246.5 billion at the year’s end, down slightly from $264.5 billion a year earlier, according to the report.
Bank of America announced today fourth quarter net income of $2.73 billion, or $1.83 a share, compared to $2.61 billion or $1.69 a share, a year earlier.
Additionally, the bank claimed it expects to complete its acquisition of FleetBoston Financial by the second quarter this year and become the third largest U.S. bank, after Citigroup and J.P. Morgan, which merged with Bank One.
