JPMorgan Chase &Â Co. kicked off the first-quarter earnings season for the mortgage industry with increased originations, lower delinquency and record earnings.
From Jan. 1 through March 31, total mortgage origination volume was $53.1 billion.
Chase pushed up activity from the fourth quarter of last year, when production totaled $51.6 billion.
In the first quarter of last year, $38.7 billion was funded.
Home-equity originations accounted for $0.402 billion of first-quarter 2013 activity, up from $0.373 billion the prior period and $0.312 billion in the year-earlier period.
First-quarter volume also included $26.2 billion in retail originations, slightly off $26.4 billion in the prior period. Wholesale business was unchanged at $0.1 billion, and correspondent production climbed to $24.0 billion from $22.3 billion. Another $2.4 billion in negotiated transactions was reported, the same as in the fourth quarter.
Second-quarter business is poised to slip based on Chase’s mortgage application volume, which fell to $60.5 billion in the first quarter from the prior period’s $65.7 billion.
As of the end of last month, the third-party mortgage servicing portfolio was $849.2 billion. Chase trimmed its mortgage servicing rights from the end of December, when the portfolio was $859.4 billion.
The servicing portfolio has also been reduced from $884.2 billion as of March 31, 2012.
Chase’s mortgage investment portfolio finished the first quarter at $173.839 billion, off from $177.326 billion at the end of the fourth quarter and $192.401 billion at the same point last year.
The latest total included $85.323 billion in home-equity loans, $75.348 billion in prime mortgages and $12.564 billion in subprime mortgages
Delinquency of at least 30 days on Chase’s mortgage investment portfolio, excluding credit impaired loans, was 4.61 percent, improving from 5.03 percent as of Dec. 31, 2012. The delinquency rate was much better than 5.32 percent as of March 31, 2012.
After $0.2 billion in realized losses and $0.1 billion in new provisions, repurchase liability was cut to $2.7 billion from $2.8 billion at the end of December.
Within its mortgage banking business, income before taxes was $1.1 billion, jumping from $0.7 billion three months earlier. But mortgage earnings were down from $1.4 billion a year earlier.
Company-wide income before taxes at the New York-based bank jumped to an all-time high of $9.1 billion from $7.0 billion in the prior period and the same quarter a year earlier.
“We are seeing positive signs that the economy is healthy and getting stronger,” JPMorgan Chase Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said in the report. “Housing prices continued to improve and new home purchases are also starting to come back.”
Chase operated 5,632 branches as of March 31, more than the 5,614 branches at the end of 2012.
