While purchase mortgage financing dropped, a rise in refinancing moved total home lending activity higher at Regions Financial Corp.
Regions’ first-quarter earnings report revealed the lender originated $1.270 billion in residential loans during the first three months of this year.
This recent total was increased from the $1.168 billion originated in the three months ended Dec. 31 last year and the $0.966 billion funded in the first three months of 2014.
Purchase financing slipped to $0.743 billion from $0.817 billion in the fourth-quarter 2014 yet comprised the majority of residential home loans.
Refinancing, however, rose to $0.527 billion from $0.351 billion in the three months ended December last year. Recent refinance share also increased to 41 percent from 30 percent in the preceding three months.
The Birmingham, Alabama-based company did not include servicing portfolio data in its latest earnings report, but the most recent 10-K filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission revealed $27.7 billion in loans serviced for third parties as of the last day of 2014.
The balance sheet included residential assets at $23.272 billion. This recent total was slightly higher than the $23.247 billion accounted for as of Dec. 31 last year and just below the $23.284 billion reported as of March 31 a year ago.
The most-recent residential assets total included first liens at $12.418 billion, first-lien home-equity loans at $6.261 billion and second-lien HELs at $4.593 billion.
Delinquency of at least 30 days on non-guaranteed residential first liens improved to 1.81 percent from 2.20 percent as of the end of last year and 2.55 percent as of the end of March last year.
With a HEL 30-day delinquency rate of 1.55 percent, the rate was four basis points better than at the end of the fourth-quarter 2014. Compared to a year earlier, HEL delinquency was 18 BPS lower.
At $15.401 billion, commercial real estate assets edged up from $15.483 billion as of the end of the prior year’s last quarter. The recent CRE portfolio was thinned down from $16.624 billion as of March 31, 2014.
The most-recent CRE loan figure included owner-occupied loans at $8.043 billion, owner-occupied construction loans at $0.437 billion, investor CRE loans at $4.499 billion and investor construction loans at $2.422 billion.
Delinquency of at least 30 days on owner-occupied CRE loans was 0.46 percent, a slight improvement from 0.47 percent as of the last day ended December last year but three BPS higher than the last day of the first quarter a year ago.
Thirty-day or more late payments on investor CRE loans dove down to 0.24 percent from 0.48 percent as of the final day in 2014 and 1.45 percent at the close of March that same year.
Altogether, Regions’ mortgage income was $40 million, well ahead of the $27 million earned last year in the fourth quarter, though unchanged from mortgage earnings from the first-quarter 2014.
The most recent quarterly mortgage income reflected $27 million in production earnings, $21 million in servicing income and $8 million in losses from mortgage servicing rights.
Company-wide, the lender’s first-quarter income from continuing operations before income taxes rose to $331 million from $317 million in the prior quarter. Last year’s first-quarter earnings, however, were higher at $454 million.
According to the most recent financial report, these prior quarterly earnings were changed due to corporate adoption of “new guidance related to the accounting for investments in qualified affordable housing projects.”
Staffing across all of Regions fell to 23,601 from 23,723 as of the end of 2014 and 23,687 as of the end of March 2013.
At the end of the first-quarter, Regions accounted for 1,633 branch outlets — 33 fewer than tallied as of Dec. 31, 2014.
