Although most mortgage firms so far have reported a drop in quarter-over-quarter originations, JPMorgan Chase & Co. defied the trend. Mortgage earnings and servicing also increased.
From July 1 through Sept 30, residential loan production reached $29.9 billion, according to the company’s third-quarter earnings report.
Mortgage originations were slightly ahead of the $29.3 billion produced in the second quarter — contrasting the quarter-over-quarter decline reported by the five firms that have so far participated in the Mortgage Daily Third Quarter 2015 Mortgage Origination Survey.
Lending volume was much better than the $21.2 billion originated in the third-quarter 2014. The year-earlier report additionally showed $0.789 billion in home-equity loan production, which Chase no longer reports.
The latest production total included $9.5 billion in retail originations, down from the prior period’s $9.8 billion. Most of Chase’s lending volume came from correspondent acquisitions totaling $20.4 billion, up from $19.5 billion listed in the second quarter.
Altogether, the New York-based firm’s nine-month mortgage production total came to $83.9 billion.
As of Sept. 30, the lender’s total mortgage servicing portfolio increased to $929.0 billion from $917.0 billion as of June 30 but shrank from the $963.4 billion serviced as of the same point in 2014.
The latest servicing portfolio included $702.6 billion in loans serviced for third parties.
For the recently completed quarter, Chase showed $214.579 billion in owned, total-period-end residential loans. Assets on the balance sheet grew from $203.130 billion tallied at the end of the second quarter and $181.543 billion figured last year at the end of the third quarter.
At the end of September, residential investments included $60.849 billion in HELs, $7.182 billion in subprime mortgages and $146.131 billion in prime loans including adjustable-rate mortgage options. The remaining $0.417 billion in loans was classified as “other.”
Excluding purchased credit-impaired loans, Chase’s mortgage investment portfolio had a 30-day delinquency rate of 1.74 percent. This rate improved from 1.95 percent reported as of June 30 and a downwardly revised 2.76 percent listed as of Sept. 30, 2014.
The 30-day or more PCI loan delinquency rate of 11.29 percent fared better than the 11.65 percent as of the end of June and 13.69 percent as of the end of September last year.
The lender’s mortgage banking income before taxes inched ahead to $0.971 billion from $0.942 billion brought in during the second quarter. The most-recent income was much better compared to third-quarter 2014 earnings of $0.767 billion.
At the holding-company level, Chase’s earnings before income tax expenses fell $1.6 billion from the second quarter to $6.7 billion. The bank earned $1.2 billion less in the most-recent period than in the third-quarter 2014.
Chase ended September with 235,678 company-wide employees — 1,781 fewer than reported as of June 30 and 6,710 less than counted as of Sept. 30 last year.
Branch count fell to 5,471 from 5,504 reported as of June 30, 2015.
