Single-family originations by commercial banks and savings institutions jumped 23% in the fourth quarter as refinancing activity accelerated from the prior period, according to new figures released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The 762 reporting institutions originated $151 billion of first lien 1-4 family loans in the fourth quarter, compared to $123 billion in 3Q (809 depositories reporting).
According to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report, Wells Fargo & Co. funded $120 billion of home loans in 4Q through three different channels: retail, wholesale, and correspondent. (FDIC's accounting is different than NMN's.)
The agency collects its figures from commercial and savings banks that originate more than $10 million of residential loans in a given quarter, or have $1 billion or more in assets. (The FDIC data set does not include originations by federally chartered thrifts.)
FDIC also reported that delinquencies on 1-4 family loans held in portfolio remain high as do loan buybacks from secondary market investors such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In 4Q FDIC reporting institutions repurchased $4.2 billion of loans at the request of the GSEs and other investors, compared to $4.4 billion in 3Q.
These buyback demands in the fourth quarter cost Bank of America $1.45 billion, JPMorgan Chase $642 million, Wells Fargo $622 million, Citibank $455 million, and SunTrust $303 million.
Meanwhile, all FDIC-insured institutions held $1.76 trillion of first lien residential mortgages at yearend 2011, up just $5 billion from a year ago.
At the same time, 9.6% of these single-family loans are 90-days or more past due, in foreclosure, or otherwise considered uncollectable — down from 9.9% a year ago.
Overall, banks charged-off roughly $3.9 billion of single-family loans held in portfolio, compared to $6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010.
