Tag Archives: JPMorgan Chase

The decline in mortgage production in the year's opening months failed to produce any names to the list of top lenders for the quarter, but it did shake up the rankings a bit. Staying firmly in the No. 1 spot for the quarter was Wells Fargo, which held on to 14.3 percent of the market with $36 billion in origination volumes, down from $50 billion in Q4 2013. On the servicing side, Wells Fargo again beat out all others, boasting a portfolio estimated at $1.81 trillion.

According to examination results released Wednesday by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight, five of the six banks met or exceeded expectations across 29 different compliance metrics in the third and fourth quarters of 2013. Not faring as well was Green Tree, a wholly owned subsidiary of Walter Investment Management Corp., which has part of ResCap's servicing portfolio.

Secured loans, or advances, from the Federal Home Loan Banks system to lenders dried up significantly after the market crash of 2008, when the loans peaked at about $1 trillion. But since then, advances have risen to $492 billion, largely due to a flood of secured loans to the system's four largest members—JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citibank. These lenders accounted for $135 billion of the contributions through 2013.

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase experienced very different first quarters, as evidenced by results in their quarterly earnings reports released Friday. Wells Fargo reported a record net income of $5.9 billion for the first quarter, an increase of 14 percent from the year-ago quarter and 5 percent from Q4 2013. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase reported profits of $5.3 billion for the quarter compared to $6.5 billion a year ago.

The appointed monitor for the National Mortgage Settlement revealed Tuesday that all banks involved in the settlement have satisfied their consumer relief and refinancing obligations—and nearly a year ahead of schedule. In a release, Joseph A. Smith Jr. commented, "Because of the way this landmark agreement was designed, an unprecedented amount of relief has been provided to consumers quickly and efficiently."

While mortgage origination volumes looked different last year compared to 2012, the list of top lenders looked very much the same. In full-year originations, Wells Fargo held on to its top spot, generating approximately $351 billion in loans—about 19 percent of last year’s total volume, according to Mortgage Daily. JPMorgan Chase followed up at No. 2 at $168 billion.

JPMorgan Chase announced Tuesday it plans to cut an additional 6,000 mortgage banking jobs in 2014 as the bank adapts to a continued spiral in loan demand. The announced cuts come on top of an estimated headcount reduction of 11,000 last year, the bank revealed in an investor presentation. At this time in 2013, JPMorgan was shooting to bring the headcount down at its mortgage wing by 13,000-15,000 over the following two years.

The Justice Department and JPMorgan both announced Tuesday that the bank will pay $614 million in restitution for violations of the False Claims Act. The government claims that starting as early as 2002, the firm knowingly originated and underwrote non-compliant loans submitted for insurance coverage and guarantees by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). As a consequence, the DoJ says FHA and VA ""incurred substantial losses when unqualified loans failed.""

For the entire year, industry numbers point to a total of $1.8 trillion in originations, well above what many analysts projected at the opening of the year. Given the current trend of declining mortgage rates and the Federal Housing Finance Agency's expected push to open credit availability at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FBR Capital Markets says we might see originations in 2014 push to $1.3 trillion or higher, depending on how the next few months play out.

This season's bank releases kicked off Tuesday with dual quarterly earnings reports from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo--and as projected, weakened origination figures took their toll. JPMorgan's fourth-quarter income came to nearly $5.3 billion, a recovery from the third quarter's losses but a weak showing compared to the prior year's $5.7 billion. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo reported fourth-quarter profits of $5.6 billion, a 10 percent improvement over the same quarter last year.