Report: Q1 Sees 15 Mortgage-Related Company Closings

""_Mortgage Daily_"":http://www.mortgagedaily.com/ tracked a total of 15 mortgage-related business closings in the first quarter of 2013, putting the year on pace to see the fewest number of mortgage banking failures in seven years.

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While Q1's casualty rate was greater than Q4 2012 (when 13 businesses shut down or collapsed), it's an improvement over Q1 2012, which saw 27 total closings.

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The first-quarter total included ""four bank failures"":https://themreport.com/articles/georgia-bank-shuts-down-2013-tally-inches-up-to-4-2013-03-11 as reported by FDIC--the lowest number since the second quarter of 2008, when only two FDIC-insured banks closed.

Also included in the total were five credit union failures. The last time so many credit unions closed in a single quarter was a year ago, when seven credit unions fell. _Mortgage Daily_ attributes the relatively higher credit union casualty rate to the fact that they tend to operate on a smaller scale.

Finally, the Q1 list of closings included six non-bank, non-credit union institutions, the most well-known of which was ""Edward Jones Mortgage LLC"":https://themreport.com/articles/edward-jones-mortgage-cites-regulatory-reform-as-reason-for-closure-2013-02-15. Edward Jones Mortgage, a joint venture between Edward Jones and Wells Fargo, closed as regulatory changes governing such ventures forced Wells Fargo to end the agreement.

At the current pace, _Mortgage Daily_ forecasts around 60 mortgage-related closings this year, down from 83 last year and the lowest level since 2006, when 32 mortgage-related companies shuttered their doors.