OTS reports $176.6 billion 4th quarter thrift originations
By MortgageDaily.com staff
2/17/2005

A strong fourth quarter was not enough to generate record thrift originations for all of 2004, but the sector did achieve record earnings last year.

During the fourth quarter, thrift institutions originated $176.6 billion in mortgages, the Office of Thrift Supervision announced Wednesday. The total is better than the 167.1 billion in the third quarter and represented about 24% of total U.S. residential mortgage originations during the quarter, the agency said.

Full-year 2004 volume amounted to $689.1 billion, the second best annual total as it did not surpass the record of $806 billion in 2003, according to OTS -- which regulates all federally chartered and many state-chartered thrift institutions including savings banks and savings and loan associations.

Thrift industry net income rose 2% from 2003 to a new record of $13.96 billion, the regulator reported.

OTS said equity capital reached an annual milestone $118.7 billion and that over 99% of all thrifts were well capitalized at the end of 2004.

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