Independent mortgage servicers grew their servicing portfolios in the fourth quarter of last year and swung to a per-loan profit in the process.
The average servicing portfolio during the final quarter of last year at independent mortgages servicers was 82,991 loans for $13.737 billion.
Residential loan servicing portfolios expanded from the third-quarter 2015, when an average of 82,481 loans were serviced for $13.546 billion.
Servicers also increased their portfolios from the fourth-quarter 2014, when the average was 75,532 loans for $12.741 billion.
The Mortgage Bankers Association disclosed the details in its Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report Q4 2015.
There were 217 independent mortgage servicers and mortgage subsidiaries of banks that were surveyed in the latest report. Current- and prior-quarter numbers, however, reflected data from just the 189 companies that participated in both periods’ surveys.
An average of 1,310 loans were serviced per full-time employee, an improvement over 1,290 three months earlier and 1,038 a year earlier.
Fourth-quarter 2015 servicing per full-time employee was 1,708 at firms that serviced between 10,000 and 50,000 loans, while it was just 739 at companies with fewer than 2,500 loans serviced.
Headcount averaged 141 at all participating firms during the fourth-quarter 2015, while average personnel costs were $62,356 per full-time employee.
Net financial income at the nation’s servicers
swung to a 6-basis-point profit from a 3-basis-point loss in the third quarter and a 1-basis-point loss in the fourth-quarter 2014.
Most of the quarter-over-quarter improvement was with net losses from mortgage servicing rights
valuations and hedging, which fell from 10 BPS to less than 1 basis point.
At companies that serviced fewer than 2,500 loans, net financial income was a less-than-1-basis-point loss, while it swung to a more than 8-basis-point
profit at firms with servicing portfolios of between 2,500 loans and 10,000 mortgages.
