Efficiency at the nation’s independent mortgage servicing organizations has improved. Servicer earnings moved higher from a year previous but descended from the preceding period.
The annual rate of earnings on loans serviced by
independent mortgage servicers and mortgage banking subsidiaries of chartered banks was 10 basis points during the three months ended mid-year.
Details about servicing were reported in the Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report Q2 2018 from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The report costs $175 for MBA members and $300 of non-members.
Earnings at mortgage servicers were diminished versus the preceding three-month period when the total was 17 BPS. The variance was fueled by mortgage-servicing rights financial items, which swung to a 3-basis-point loss from a 4-basis-point gain.
But income jumped from just 1 basis point in the same three months last year, when there was a 12-basis-point charge for MSR financial items.
Most profitable during the latest three-month period were companies that serviced between 10,000 and 50,000 loans, earning more than 12 BPS. Servicers with fewer than 2,500 mortgages in their portfolios earned less than 6 BPS.
The average servicing portfolio grew to 83,721 loans with a collective unpaid principal balance of $14.098 billion from 82,060 loans for $13.717 billion as of March 31. Servicing portfolios averaged 66,754 loans for $11.425 billion as of mid-2017.
The level of efficiency has improved, with average loans serviced per full-time employee climbing to 1,267 in the second-quarter 2018 from 1,139 three months earlier and 1,205 one year earlier.
