Non-bank servicers of residential loans managed to grow their servicing portfolios and income despite a decline in efficiency per employee.
Among independent mortgage bankers and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks that service home loans, the average portfolio was
81,289 loans serviced fro $13.706 billion.
The group grew their portfolios from the first quarter of this year, when an average of 80,717 mortgages were serviced for $13.578 billion.
The full details are available in the data-rich report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report Q2 2015.
Although 231 firms participated in the latest installment of the survey, data from just 206 that were part of both the first and second quarter surveys for this year is reflected in the quarter-over-quarter comparisons.
The growth in servicing portfolios was more substantial versus the second-quarter 2014, when an average of 68,980 loans were serviced for $11.409 billion.
The trade group said that an average of 1,092
loans were serviced per full-time servicing employee during the latest period.
Efficiency deteriorated from the first quarter, when an average of 1,146 loans were serviced, and from the same three-month period last year, when the average was 1,133.
By servicing portfolio size, average loans serviced per employee
soared to 1,577 at firms with between 10,000 and 50,000 loans in their portfolio. The average, however, plunged to just 706 when portfolios fell below 2,500 loans.
Employee expense worked out to 103 basis points during the latest period. Servicers trimmed their personnel costs from 109 BPS in the first quarter and
111 BPS in the second-quarter 2014.
Net servicing income
came to a whopping 197 BPS, swinging from a 72-basis-point first-quarter loss. The prior period reflected large losses from the valuations and hedging of mortgage servicing rights.
Servicing income also improved from the second-quarter 2014, when the average was 104 BPS.
At
companies that service between 2,500 and 10,000 mortgages, net financial income was 13 BPS. But at servicers with more than 50,000 loans in their portfolio, the net was just seven BPS.
