JPMorgan Chase & Co., the first lender to report earnings data for last year, said quarterly and annual home-loan fundings fell.
Fourth-quarter 2009 originations, including residential and home-equity loans, were $35.2 billion, according to earnings data released today. Volume declined from $37.6 billion in the previous quarter but climbed from $29.8 billion a year earlier. Loan applications fell to $43.4 billion from $45.5 billion in the third quarter.
Included in the latest closings were $0.4 billion in HELs, lower than the third quarter’s $0.5 billion and the fourth-quarter 2008’s $1.7 billion. For the entire year, HELÂ volume was $2.4 billion.
Correspondent acquisitions accounted for $17.2 billion of fourth-quarter activity, while in-house retail originators generated $12.3 billion and wholesale production was $3.4 billion
During all of 2009, total production was $153.1 billion, lower than $185.3 billion in 2008.
The third-party mortgage servicing portfolio finished last year at $1.0821 trillion, lower than $1.0989 trillion on Sept. 30. Compared to the end of 2008, the servicing portfolio was down $91 billion.
Including credit-impaired loans, home-equity holdings ended last year at $127.9 billion, down from $131.9 billion three months prior. Chase expects the portfolio to decline another 10 to 15 percent by next year.
Prime mortgage holdings eased to $79.1 billion from 80.3 billion, and subprime mortgage assets declined to $18.5 billion from $19.4 billion. Payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages owned by Chase declined to $37.5 billion from $38.7 billion.
Excluding credit-impaired loans, delinquency on all types of consumer loans climbed to 5.93 percent from 5.85 percent on Sept. 30. Delinquency was 4.21 percent a year earlier.
At the retail financial services unit, Chase had a $399 million fourth-quarter net loss, souring from a $7 million profit the prior quarter and a $624 million profit the prior year. The company noted that lower net mortgage servicing revenue offset wider loan spreads.
Net income across the financial giant eased to $3.278 billion from the third-quarter’s $3.588 billion. Earnings shot up, however, from $0.702 billion in the fourth-quarter 2008. For the entire year, earnings climbed to $11.728 billion from $5.605 billion in 2008.
There were 108,971 people employed in retail financial services, higher than 106,951 at the end of the third quarter and 102,007 at the end of 2008. More than 14,000 employees worked in loss mitigation.
Company-wide headcount was 222,316 on Dec. 31, off from 220,861 three months earlier and 224,961 one year earlier.
