The total mortgage servicing portfolio at Bank of America Corp., which exceeded $2 trillion three years ago, has fallen below $1 trillion. But the banking behemoth managed to raise residential originations and improve mortgage earnings from the prior quarter.
Home loan production at the Charlotte, N.C.-based firm amounted to around 112,000 mortgages for $26.772 billion during the three months ended June 30, according to second-quarter earnings data released Wednesday.
Business was better than during the first quarter, when BofA originated roughly 106,000 loans for $25.036 billion. Loan fundings were also lifted from the second-quarter 2012, when $18.935 billion was closed.
From Jan. 1 through June 30 of this year, mortgage production amounted to $51.808 billion.
Home-equity loan production accounted for $1.496 billion of the latest quarter’s activity.
Upcoming originations are anticipated to be lower given a 5 percent decline in the mortgage pipeline from the first quarter.
After apparently closing on the previously announced sale of mortgage servicing rights on $215 billion in home loans to Nationstar Mortgage LLC, BofA’s total mortgage servicing portfolio tumbled to 5.3 million loans for $0.9864 trillion from 6.4 million loans for $1.1850 trillion in the previous report. The total stood at 8.4 million loans for $1.5938 trillion as of June 30, 2012.
The total servicing portfolio was $2.1276 trillion as of June 30, 2010.
The third-party portion of the June 30 servicing portfolio was $0.759 trillion, dropping from $0.949 trillion three months earlier and $1.224 trillion 12 months earlier.
Residential mortgage assets, excluding non-U.S. loans, closed out last month at $253.876 billion, off from a revised $256.718 billion at the end of March and down from a revised $262.477 billion at the same point in 2012.
HELs on the balance sheet were trimmed to $100.011 billion from a revised $103.338 billion and stood at a revised $118.136 billion one year prior.
U.S. commercial real estate holdings were $40.3 billion, climbing from $37.6 billion at the end of the first quarter and $35.0 billion as of June 30, 2012.
After receiving $1.331 billion in new repurchase claims, outstanding claims were $16.648 billion at the end of the second quarter. Outstanding claims have been reduced from $22.705 billion a year prior.
Outstanding repurchase claims from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accounted for just $1.120 billion of the latest number, plummeting from $10.936 billion as of the same date in 2012. Last month’s number also included $13.986 billion in private repurchase claims and $1.542 billion in monoline claims.
Within the consumer real estate services segment, the loss before the benefit of taxes was $1.6 billion. BofA cut its losses from a revised $3.4 billion in the first quarter. But losses were up from a revised $1.2 billion in the same period last year.
In response to a question about why prior-period losses were revised, a BofA spokesman explained, “Subsequent to the date we announced earnings in Q1 we announced a settlement with MBIA that impacted CRES. The supplement for Q1 was updated when we filed the 10-Q filing. The data in our Q2-13 supplement has been updated to reflect the MBIA settlement.”
Consolidated mortgage banking income was $1.2 billion in the second-quarter 2013, off from $1.3 billion in the prior period. Included in the most recent number was just under $0.7 billion in production income and just over $0.7 billion in servicing income.
“While first-lien mortgage production increased from 1Q13 and 2Q12, we experienced industry-wide margin compression which impacted core production revenue,” the report stated.
Income before taxes across all businesses totaled $5.5 billion, soaring from $2.0 billion during the previous period. Earnings also improved from $3.1 billion in the second-quarter 2012.
Legacy asset employees within consumer real estate loan services totaled 37,900 at the end of the second quarter, down for the third consecutive quarter. There were 42,900 people in the division three months earlier and 58,100 a year earlier.
As of the end of last month, BofA employed 257,158 people across all lines of business, fewer than the 262,812 employees on board as of March 31. Staffing has been slashed from the same point last year, when headcount was 257,460.
Banking centers in operation shrank to 5,328 from 5,389 at the end of the first quarter.
