Residential loan originations improved from the prior and year-earlier quarters at Citizens Financial Group Inc. and could ascend even higher.
In the three months ended June 30, home lending activity worked out to $1.964 billion.
Business was significantly elevated compared to the first quarter of this year, when $1.386 in production was generated.
Mortgage lending also accelerated from the second quarter of last year, when $1.523 billion in loans were funded.
That was according to the Providence, Rhode Island-based financial institution’s second-quarter 2016 earnings report released on Thursday.
For the entire first-half 2016, mortgage originations amounted to $3.350 billion.
It appears that third-quarter production will continue the growth trend based on the origination pipeline, which rose to $2.5 billion in the second quarter from $2.1 billion in the prior period.
While no third-party mortgage servicing portfolio was indicated in the latest earnings report, a previous Form 10-Q filing
with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicated that it stood at $17.4 billion as of March 31, off slightly from $17.6 billion at the end of last year.
Residential assets on the balance sheet increased to $31.583 billion as of June 30, 2016, from $31.453 billion at the end of the previous quarter. But mortgage investments were trimmed from $31.812 billion at the same point last year.
Also in the investment portfolio were $9.825 billion in commercial real estate loans. The total grew from $9.406 billion as of March 31 and $8.157 as of June 30, 2015.
Mortgage-banking fees were $25 million in the second-quarter 2016, rising from $18 million three months earlier but down from $30 million a year earlier.
The report indicated that income before income tax expense was $361 million
at the bank-holding company level. Earnings improved from the first quarter’s $332 million and the second-quarter 2015’s $282 million.
The latest period closed out with 17,828 full-time equivalent employees. Staffing was trimmed from 17,902 people at the end of March 2016 and 17,903 employees at the end of June 2015.
