Home lending activity was down at Citigroup Inc., especially on a year-over-year basis. Mortgage servicing shrank, and delinquency improved.
First-mortgage originations from Jan. 1 until March 31 totaled $5.5 billion. Business tumbled from $6.2 billion three months previous.
That was according to operational and financial data disclosed in the New York-based financial services firm’s first-quarter 2015 earnings report.
Residential loan production sank compared to the first quarter of last year, when $7.0 billion in home loans were closed.
Second-quarter business is likely to come in around the same as the first quarter based on salable mortgage rate locks, which slipped to $3.1 billion from $3.2 billion.
The financial institution reported a third-party mortgage servicing portfolio of $155.9 billion as of the end of the most-recent period. The portfolio was reduced from $159.5 billion at the end of last year and $168.2 billion at the same point last year.
Real estate lending assets grew to $42.9 billion from $41.9 billion at the end of 2015 and $37.8 billion at the same point in 2015.
Delinquency of at least 30 days on the portion of Citi’s portfolio that isn’t government-guaranteed was 0.67 percent,
tumbling from 0.75 percent as of year-end 2015. The 30-day rate was also off from 0.69 percent as of the first-quarter 2015.
Over at Citi Holdings, the third-party mortgage servicing portfolio closed out the first-quarter 2016 at $29.3 billion. The unit serviced $34.0 billion three months earlier and $43.4 billion a year earlier.
Citi Holdings continued to reduce its residential assets, to $35.9 billion as of the latest date from $37.8 billion in the fourth quarter and $53.6 billion in the first quarter of last year.
The March 31, 2016, total was comprised of $17.6 billion in first mortgages and $18.3 billion in home-equity loans.
Excluding government-guaranteed loans, 30-day mortgage delinquency at Citi Holdings came in at 4.27 percent, off from 4.36 percent as of Dec. 31, 2015, and 5.33 percent as of March 31, 2015.
“We … drove another significant reduction of assets in Citi Holdings, which were down 10 percent from the end of last year and, for the seventh quarter in a row, holdings was profitable,” Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat said in the report. “Given that holdings now accounts for such a small percentage of Citi’s balance sheet, we will no longer report its results separately after this year. Winding down holdings has been a longtime goal and shows Citi’s progress in becoming a simpler, smaller, safer and stronger institution.”
Citi earned $5.0 billion from continuing operations before income taxes, more than the $4.8 billion earned in the fourth quarter but not as much as the $6.9 billion earned during the first-three months of last year.
There were 225,000 on Citi’s payroll as of the end of last month. Staffing was reduced from 231,000 as of Dec. 31, 2015, and 239,000 as of March 31, 2015.
Consumer banking branches in North America numbered 729 as of March. Citi cut branch count from 780 as of December 2015.
Another 266 branches were operated by Citi Holdings, six fewer than as of year-end 2015.
