U.S. Bancorp saw its mortgage banking revenue more than double in the first quarter, originating roughly $19 billion of residential loans, according to figures released Tuesday.
The Minneapolis-based company reported net earnings of $1.3 billion for the first quarter, up 28% from the same period last year, driven by $56 billion in new lending activity. The vast majority of that activity was tied to commercial and commercial real estate lending commitments as well as residential mortgage production.
It took in $452 million of mortgage banking revenue in the first quarter, compared with $199 million in 1Q 2011.Compared to the first quarter of last year, mortgage production soared by 58%.
It’s anticipated that when 1Q residential volumes are tallied, U.S. Bancorp will rank fourth among all funders, bypassing Bank of America on the list.
At March 31 the bank controlled $200.2 billion of mortgage servicing rights, compared to $191.1 billion at year-end.
U.S. Bancorp held $686 million of nonperforming residential loans on its books, compared to $685 million in 1Q11. But its commercial real estate NPL portfolio decreased to $759 million from $1.5 billion over the same timeframe.
During the first quarter, U.S. Bancorp suffered $55 million in mortgage repurchases and make-whole payments, about half of what it had a year ago. The bank said its outstanding repurchase requests/make-whole balance is $134 million.
Repurchase requests are expected to remain relatively stable over the next few quarters, U.S. Bancorp noted.
