For the second consecutive quarter, Citigroup Inc. came in well below its prior-period mortgage production activity. Annual activity, however, was stronger.
Citi’s fourth-quarter earnings report data indicate the mortgage provider originated $6.2 billion in new home loans during the recently completed three-month financial period.
Fourth-quarter 2015 residential lending activity took a $1.3 billion dollar hit from the total in the third quarter, which also fell below its three-month predecessor.
The New York-based financier also came up a half-billion dollars short of funding volume from the fourth-quarter 2014.
For all of last year, the lending giant gave out $29.5 billion in new home loans, more than the $25.2 billion funded during all of 2014.
Unfortunately, this quarter-over-quarter origination slump may continue into the current quarter.
Salable mortgage rate locks, a forward-looking indicator, slipped $0.7 billion from the third quarter to $3.2 billion in the final three months of 2015.
As of Dec. 31, Citi had serviced $159.5 billion mortgages for third parties. The portfolio thinned from $162.6 billion as of Sept. 30 and closed out 2014 at $171.9 billion.
Real estate lending assets on the balance sheet increased to $41.9 billion from $40.6 billion at the end of September and $36.7 billion as of Dec. 30, 2014.
The 30-day or more delinquency rate climbed nine basis points to 0.77 percent at the end of last year. Still, the delinquency rate was 18 BPS better compared to the same point a year prior.
Citi Holdings trimmed its third-party servicing portfolio to $34.0 billion from $36.4 billion as of Sept. 30 and $47.4 billion as of Dec. 31, 2014.
The $37.8 billion mortgage investment portfolio for Citi Holdings was well below the $47.9 billion accounted for at the end of the third-quarter and the $59.3 billion documented at the end of 2014.
These assists included $18.7 billion in first mortgages and $19.1 billion in home-equity loans.
Thirty-day or more delinquency on Citi Holding’s mortgage investment portfolio improved to 4.36 percent from 5.53 percent at of the end of September-end rate. The recent rate also fared better than 5.67 percent at the end of 2014’s fourth quarter.
Before taxes, fourth-quarter income from continuing operations fell $1.4 billion to $4.8 billion at the holding-company level. Yet, on a year-over-year basis, earnings were well above the $1.5 billion reported for the final three-month period in 2014.
Company-wide, Citi’s direct staff numbers fell to 231,000 from 239,000 as of Sept. 30 and 241,000 as of the same point a year earlier.
North American branches in the global consumer banking division increased by one to 780.
Citi Holdings’ North American branches remained the same at 272 but were far from the 1,424 locations accounted for at the end of 2014.
