In addition to slowing its home lending volume, Fifth Third Bancorp cut its mortgage assets and reduced the size of its serving portfolio.
From Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, residential loan originations were
$1.7 billion, fourth-quarter earnings data indicate.
Business slowed down from the previous quarter, when production was $2.1 billion.
Activity was also down from $2.6 billion closed in the fourth-quarter 2013, reflecting Fifth Third’s exit from the broker channel in the first quarter of 2014.
For all of 2014, Fifth Third originated
$7.5 billion in home loans, plunging from the $22.3 billion in 2013 production.
The third-party residential loan servicing portfolio was reduced to $65.413 billion from $66.808 billion as of Sept. 30. The servicing portfolio was $69.159 billion as of the end of 2013.
On
Fifth Third’s balance sheet were $22.468 billion in residential assets, reduced from $22.507 billion in the third quarter and $22.816 billion in the fourth-quarter 2013.
The Dec. 31, 2014, total consisted of $13.582 billion in residential mortgage loans and $8.886 billion in home-equity loans.
Residential mortgage delinquency of at least 90 days was 0.44 percent, unchanged from the prior period and 8 basis points better than the year-earlier period.
Fifth Third Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin T. Kabat explained in the report that
$720 billion in residential troubled debt restructurings were moved to held-for-sale “as we look to take advantage of market conditions to reduce our TDR portfolio.”
Fifth Third serviced $0.290 billion in commercial real estate loans as of Dec. 31, 2014, reducing the portfolio from $0.296 billion three months prior and $0.317 billion
twelve months earlier. The most-recent number included $0.270 billion in commercial mortgages and $0.020 billion in commercial construction loans.
Commercial real estate assets finished last year at $9.481 billion. Fifth Third grew the portfolio from $9.270 billion three months earlier and $9.110 billion one year earlier.
The most-recent CRE total was comprised of $7.410 billion in commercial mortgages and $2.071 billion in commercial construction loans.
The bank-holding company earned $519 million before taxes, increasing from $464 million in the three months ended Sept. 30. Income slipped, however, from $561 million in the fourth-quarter 2013.
Headcount finished last year at 18,351 full-time equivalent employees, fewer than the 18,503 as of the end of September. Staffing has been cut from 19,446 as of the end of 2013.
The number of banking centers was trimmed by six from the third quarter to 1,302.
