Thanks to its exit from the correspondent lending channel, annual mortgage originations at Bank of America Corp. dropped by half. Huge losses were reported for the mortgage unit. But the banking behemoth reported an increase in quarterly originations and a decrease in residential delinquency.
The Charlotte, N.C.-based company said in its fourth-quarter earnings report that it originated $22.478 billion during the period.
Business picked up from $21.248 billion in the third quarter and $22.373 billion in the same period during 2011.
The most-recent production reflected 305,000 first mortgage originations for $21.516 billion and $0.962 billion in home-equity loan volume.
Full-year mortgage production sank to $78.659 billion from $156.144 billion in 2011. The decline reflected BofA’s exit in 2011 from correspondent lending — which generated $71.456 billion of the 2011 total.
Through the sale of mortgage servicing rights, the bank cut its portfolio of mortgages serviced for investors to $1.045 trillion from $1.142 trillion at the end of September and $1.379 trillion at the end of 2011.
U.S. residential loans on BofA’s balance sheet were trimmed to $243.088 billion from $247.246 billion as of Sept. 30. Residential assets were $262.205 billion at the end of 2011.
Delinquency of at least 30 days on residential investments, excluding government-insured and purchased credit-impaired loans, fell to 2.1 percent from 2.3 percent in the third quarter. The rate was 2.5 percent as of Dec. 31, 2011.
Home-equity holdings were reduced to $107.996 billion from $112.260 billion and stood at $124.699 billion a year earlier. Home-equity delinquency was unchanged at 1.1 percent but has improved from 1.5 percent a 12 months prior.
Delinquency on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration and other insured mortgages rose to 11.83 percent from the third quarter’s 11.49 percent and 10.94 percent at the same point in the prior year.
In addition, BofA owned $9.892 billion in discontinued real estate loans, a little less than the $9.876 billion owned at the end of the previous quarter and a lot less than the $11.095 billion owned at the end of the previous year.
U.S. commercial real estate loans in the investment portfolio grew to $37.2 billion from $36.0 billion but have fallen from $37.8 billion a year prior.
Representations and warranties provision was $3.0 billion in the fourth quarter, surging from $0.3 billion a year earlier. After receiving $4.5 billion in new repurchase claims, outstanding repurchase claims climbed to $28.3 billion from $25.5 billion at the end of September. The Dec. 31 figure reflected $13.5 billion in claims from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, $12.3 billion in private claims and $2.4 billion in monoline claims.
Fourth-quarter income before taxes in the consumer real estate services division was a $5.6 billion loss, worse than the $1.4 billion third-quarter loss and the $2.3 billion loss a year earlier. The business cut its full-year losses to $10.0 billion from $29.5 billion in 2011.
BofA said income was impacted by $2.7 billion because of its settlement with Fannie Mae and $1.1 billion as a result of its settlement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Reserve.
Company-wide income before taxes was a $1.9 billion loss, swinging from a $1.1 billion profit three months earlier and a $2.4 billion profit a year earlier. Annual earnings totaled $3.0 billion.
There were 267,190 people employed by BofA across all units as of Dec. 31, fewer than the 272,594 employees as of the end of the third quarter and the 281,791 employees at the end of 2011.
As of the end of last year, 5,478 branches were in operation, not as many as the 5,540 branches at the close of the prior quarter.
