Mortgage originations have plummeted by more than 70 percent from a year ago at Citigroup Inc. and were down by more than a third from the prior quarter. But the lender improved performance on its mortgage portfolio.
Home loan originations during the three months ended March 31 were $5.2 billion, according to the New York-based company’s first-quarter 2014 earnings report.
Business tumbled from $8.3 billion in production during the prior quarter and plunged from $18.0 billion in the first-quarter 2013.
It doesn’t look like the tapering in originations has yet ended based on saleable mortgage rate locks, which fell to $3.6 billion from $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter.
Citi serviced $178.8 billion in residential loans for third parties, reducing its servicing portfolio from $180.6 billion as of Dec. 31, 2013.
But the portfolio has grown from one year prior, when Citi owned mortgage servicing rights on $175.8 billion in loans.
In addition, Citi Holdings serviced $88.4 billion, tumbling from $100.1 billion in at the end of the fourth quarter and $128.8 billion at the end of the first-quarter 2013.
As of the close of the most recent period, real estate lending assets were $35.1 billion. This class of assets increased from $34.3 billion at the end of 2013 and $33.9 billion at the same point last year.
Excluding loans guaranteed by government-sponsored agencies, delinquency of at least 30 days within the global consumer banking unit closed out the first quarter at 0.95 percent. The rate was 1.08 percent in the prior report and 1.22 percent in the year-earlier report.
Within the Citi Holdings operation, mortgage investments fell to $70.9 billion from $73.3 billion and were $86.1 billion as of March 31, 2013.
Last month’s total included $43.2 billion in residential first mortgage assets and $27.7 billion in home-equity loans.
Excluding agency-guaranteed loans, Citi Holdings’ mortgage delinquency rate fell to 6.55 percent from 6.99 percent at the end of last year. As of the same date in 2013, the rate was 7.81 percent.
Cit said it earned $6.0 billion from continuing operations before income taxes at the holding company level, surging from $3.4 billion in the fourth quarter and up from $5.5 billion in the same quarter last year.
Company-wide staffing finished March at 248,000 employees. Headcount was reduced from 251,000 three months earlier and 257,000 twelve months earlier.
The number of branches in the global consumer banking division fell to 3,601 from 3,729 at the end of the fourth quarter.
At the Citi Holdings unit, branch count was lowered to 1,459 from 1,471.
