New loan production slowed at Fremont Bank as a result of a decline in third-party originations. The mortgage servicing portfolio, however, leapt past $10 billion.
First-quarter residential loan home loan fundings at the Fremont, Calif.-based company totaled 7,162 mortgages for $1.820 billion.
Fremont reported the operational data in response to Mortgage Daily’s quarterly origination survey.
Business slowed slightly from the fourth quarter of last year, when 7,221 home loans were closed for $1.890 billion.
But the bank lifted activity from the first-quarter 2012, when $1.630 billion in residential loans were originated.
First-quarter 2013 business included $1.351 billion in retail production, better than the $1.300 billion closed by retail originators in the previous period.
But business generated by mortgage brokers through the wholesale lending channel slowed to $0.469 billion from $0.590 billion in the final three months of last year.
Fremont’s mortgage servicing portfolio finished the first quarter at 52,657 loans for $10.132 billion, according to the survey.
The servicing portfolio climbed from 50,890 residential loans serviced for $8.473 billion as of Dec. 31, 2012.
The March 31 total included $1.284 billion in portfolio loans owned by Fremont and $8.847 billion in mortgages serviced for third parties.
The staff size was up as of the end of March, to 465 employees from headcount of 454 at the end of the previous quarter.
