Although Regions Financial Corp.’s home lending was the lowest in four years, mortgage earnings were up from the preceding quarter. Mortgage assets, delinquency and servicing all fell. Headcount was trimmed.
Income from continuing
operations before income income taxes was $542 million for the entire bank-holding company, according to its first-quarter earnings report.
Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions’ income improved from $420 million in the same three months during 2017. Earnings were virtually unchanged from the preceding three months.
Mortgage income was $38 million, off from $41 million during the first quarter of last year but slightly better than $36 million in the fourth-quarter 2017. Most recently, mortgage income consisted of $23 million from production and sales, $23 million from servicing and an $8 million charge from mortgage-servicing rights.
Residential loan originations were $1.096 billion –the lowest production since the first-quarter 2014, when volume was $0.966 billion.
The bank closed $1.266 billion in home loans three months earlier and $1.154 billion one year earlier.
Refinance share was 25.5 percent, thinning from the previous quarter’s 28.4 percent.
Regions serviced $31.641 billion in single-family loans for third parties as of March 31, 2018. The servicing portfolio slipped from $32.076 billion at the end of last year but expanded from $30.960 billion at the same point last year.
On the balance sheet were $23.808 billion in residential assets including $13.892 billion in first mortgages, $6.355 billion in home-equity lines of credit and $3.561 billion in home-equity loans. Residential holdings were reduced from $24.225 billion at the end of the fourth quarter and $24.098 billion at the same point last year.
Delinquency of at least 30 days on non-guaranteed first mortgages plunged to
1.18 percent from 1.66 percent at the end of last year and 1.54 percent on the same date in 2017.
Home-equity delinquency inched up, however, to 1.18 percent from 1.15 percent and was 20 basis points worse than one year previous.
Regions reported that it serviced $2.8 billion in multifamily loans as an approved lender for Fannie Mae’s delegated underwriting and servicing program, down from $2.9 billion at the end of last year.
Commercial real estate assets
of $11.937 billion included $6.044 billion in owner-occupied commercial mortgages, $3.742 billion in investor commercial mortgages and $2.151 billion in construction loans. CRE loans were reduced from $12.359 billion the prior quarter and $13.497 billion a year prior.
Owner-occupied CRE loan delinquency was 0.47 percent, rising 4 BPS from the prior quarter and 3 BPS from a year prior.
Investor CRE delinquency sank to 0.02 percent from 0.07 percent and has plunged from 0.25 percent twelve months earlier.
At the conclusion of March 2018, there were 20,666 people on the bank’s payroll. Staffing subsided from 21,014 as of year-end 2017 and 21,401 as of the same date last year.
Branches in operation numbered 1,473, four more than at the end of the preceding period.
