Wells: 7% of $1.6T in Servicing Late, Fundings Up

Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's second largest residential servicer, said Wednesday that 7% of its $1.6 trillion "owned" servicing portfolio was in some stage of delinquency as of March 31, but mortgage funding volumes and overall earnings were strong. Dollar-wise the delinquencies represent $112 billion in mortgages. Releasing its 1Q results, the San Francisco-based bank also announced loan charge-offs on its mortgage portfolio including: second liens ($847 million), one- to four-family ($391 million), and commercial mortgages ($556 million). The charge-offs include the mortgage operations of Wachovia Corp., the troubled bank it bought at year-end. Despite all the bad mortgage servicing news, Wells said it earned $3.05 billion in the first quarter, a record. The bank funded $101 billion in home mortgages during the period, a 55% gain from the same period a year ago. It has a mortgage application pipeline of $101 billion.