| Wells Production Plummets
4th quarter fundings off 55% while 2003 a record January 21, 2004 By MortgageDaily.com staff
|
| Fourth quarter originations resulted in a 55% slash for a San Francisco banking behemoth.
Wells Fargo & Company announced that its fourth quarter residential mortgage originations totaled $71 billion, shrinking from $161 billion the previous quarter. A year ago, volume was $112 million. “We’ve seen the crest of this refinancing wave,” said a company spokesman in a statement, in reference to the sharp decrease in quarterly production — adding that the cyclical nature of the origination business is not new to Wells. Retail loan fundings accounted for $31 billion of the total, wholesale originations followed with $30 billion, home equity loans and lines added $8 billion, while Wells Fargo Financial contributed $2 billion, said the company. According to Wells, its 2003 mortgage volume totaled an industry record $470 billion, eclipsing the previous year’s record total of $333 billion. With its subsidiaries included, the banking behemoth reported its servicing portfolio at $731 billion, up 5% from the third quarter and 18% from 2002. The average note rate for its owned servicing portfolio, which totaled $112 billion, declined to a record low 5.90% at the end of 2003, compared to 6.67% in the previous year’s end, the report said. Wells, which says it operates more than 5,900 stores, also announced another milestone in the area of its net income as it climbed 9% from the previous year to $6.2 billion in all of 2003. |
