Home lending activity slipped at Citigroup Inc., and the slide appears likely to have continued into the current quarter. Earnings deteriorated on legal expenses.
Mortgage originations during the three months ended Dec. 31, 2014, totaled $6.7 billion, fourth-quarter earnings data from the New York-based company indicate.
Business slipped from the third quarter, when $7.1 billion in residential loans were closed.
Loan production tumbled from the final quarter of 2013, when $8.3 billion in home loans were funded.
First-quarter 2015 lending is likely to decline further based on salable mortgage rate locks, which dropped to $3.8 billion in the fourth quarter from $4.4 billion three months previous.
For the entire year of 2014, Citi closed $25.2 billion in mortgages, plummeting from the $58.0 billion originated in 2013.
Citi serviced
$171.9 billion in mortgages for third parties as of Dec. 31, 2013. The servicing portfolio was reduced from $173.0 billion three months earlier and $180.6 billion a year earlier.
The third-party servicing portfolio at Citi Holdings shrank to $47.4 billion from $56.0 billion and was $100.1 billion at the end of 2013.
Citicorp’s global investment portfolio included
$36.7 billion in real estate loans, inching up from $37.6 billion as of the end of the third quarter and also greater than $34.3 billion at the end of the fourth-quarter 2013.
The 30-day delinquency rate was 0.95 percent, unchanged from the prior period and better than 1.08 percent as of the same date in 2013.
Citi Holdings owned $59.3 billion in residential assets, reducing its stake from $63.4 billion three months earlier and $73.3 billion twelve months earlier.
The most-recent figure reflected $34.4 billion in first mortgages and $24.9 in home-equity loans.
Delinquency on the Citi Holdings mortgage portfolio was 5.67 percent, 50 BPS less than as of Sept. 30 and 139 BPS better than as of Dec. 31, 2013.
Before accounting for income taxes, earnings at Citigroup were $1.4 billion, sinking from $4.9 billion in the prior period. Third-quarter income was revised down from $5.5 billion originally reported. In the fourth-quarter 2013, income was
$3.4 billion.
Impacting earnings were $2.9 billion in legal and related costs.
Citigroup
Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat noted in the report that Citi Holdings, which was created in 2009 when the New York-based company was bleeding red ink, was profitable for the first time ever on an annual basis.
Citi’s payroll included 241,000 employees, 2,000 fewer than at the end of the previous quarter and 10,000 less than at the end of the previous year.
North American branch count at Citicorp global consumer banking was cut to 849 from 895 as of Sept. 30.
Another 1,424 North American branches were operated by Citi Holdings, 31 fewer than in the third quarter.
