Quarterly mortgage originations were down by a fifth at Stearns Lending Inc., though annual production, servicing and staffing all moved higher.
Home-lending volume came to 20,947 units funded for $5.281 billion during the three months ended Dec. 31.
Stearns revealed the numbers, in addition to other operational data, in the Mortgage Daily Fourth Quarter 2015 Mortgage Origination Survey.
Business at the Santa Ana, California-based company
slowed compared to the prior period, when 25,931 loans were originated for $6.578 billion.
Originations also slowed from the final three months of 2014, a quarter that saw 20,454 loans funded for $5.266 billion.
The latest activity brought full-year 2015 mortgage production to 99,554 loans closed for $25.392 billion.
Annual production accelerated from all of 2014, when 62,780 loans were originated for $16.190 billion.
Fourth-quarter 2015 originations included
$1.206 billion in retail fundings, $2.145 billion in wholesale originations and $1.931 billion in correspondent acquisitions.
Stearns reported a mortgage servicing portfolio of 125,164 loans serviced for $26.799 billion.
Three months earlier, 122,950 loans were serviced for $25.539 billion, while there were
128,015 loans serviced for $29.480 billion a year earlier.
All of the loans were serviced for third parties.
Stearns ended last year with 1,860 people on its payroll.
Staffing expanded from 1,835 employees as of Sept. 30 and
1,718 as of Dec. 31, 2014.
