While BB&T Corp.’s quarterly mortgage originations were down in line with industry-wide performance, the bank pushed up volume from a year earlier. Delinquency improved, and the servicing portfolio expanded.
Home loan fundings amounted to $8.327 billion in the three months ended Sept. 30, according to earnings data released this week.
Like all lenders that have so far reported third-quarter mortgage production, volume was down from the previous quarter — when BB&T generated $9.260 billion in new business.
But the bank managed a small gain from the same three-month period last year, when it closed $8.234 billion in residential loans.
During the first nine months of 2013, BB&T production totaled $26.252 billion.
The most recent period reflected $2.7 billion in retail originations and $5.6 billion in correspondent purchases. The report indicated that correspondent loan production was up 14.6 percent from third-quarter 2012 “due to expansion of mandatory lending program.”
BB&T serviced a total of $110.807 billion in home loans as of the end of last month. The servicing portfolio was up from $107.057 billion three months earlier and $99.632 billion a year earlier.
The Sept. 30, 2013, total included $84.025 billion in loans serviced for others.
The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company reported a residential loan portfolio of $24.037 billion, expanding from the second quarter’s $23.795 billion but just below $24.293 billion as of Sept. 30, 2012.
Delinquency of at least 30 days on its residential investments was 3.03 percent. The rate of late payments improved from 3.13 percent in the prior quarter and 3.48 in the year-earlier period.
Another 0.99 percent of home loans were in non-accrual status, moving down from 1.07 percent and also lower than 1.10 percent as of the third-quarter 2012.
As of the end of last month, $11.331 billion in commercial real estate loans were on the books, off from the prior period’s $11.440 billion but more than $10.913 billion owned at the same point in 2012.
Another $0.982 billion in residential acquisition-and-development construction loans were owned, also off from the second quarter, when the number was $1.058 billion and down even more significantly from $1.454 billion one year prior.
BB&T said its residential mortgage banking income, prior to income taxes, totaled $124 million, not as good as the $126 million earned three months earlier or the revised $135 million earned 12 months earlier.
Earnings at the holding company level didn’t move much, with income before taxes slipping to $759 million from $797 million in the second quarter. But income was better than the third quarter of last year’s $673 million.
Company-wide headcount closed out the third quarter at 33,677 full-time employees, not quite as many as the 33,869 people employed at the end of the second quarter. Staffing was also down from 34,006 employees one year prior.
The number of banking offices was trimmed to 1,824 from 1,851 as of June 30.
