$19.4 billion 4th quarter production
By MortgageDaily.com staff
1/19/2005

Even as slashed conforming production pushed annual volume down at National City Corp., production at the subprime unit nearly doubled.

In the fourth quarter, National City's originations of $19.4 billion nudged up 2% from the prior quarter, according to its latest earnings report.

For all of 2004, the Ohio-based thrift said production totaled $80.1 billion -- down significantly from the previous year's $110.9 billion.

The conforming unit, National City Mortgage Corp., reportedly contributed $15.1 billion to the fourth quarter's fundings, of which about half were wholesale originations and half were retail.

Volume from subprime subsidiary First Franklin was $4.4 billion, off 11% from the third quarter. But annual volume of $19.6 billion grew a whopping 97% from the previous year, the parent company reported.

National City said its servicing portfolio ended the year with a balance of $152.4 billion, about 8% better than a year earlier.

As of the end of 2004, the conforming division had almost 7,800 full-time mortgage banking employees, approximately 50 less than it began the year with. Meanwhile growing production at First Franklin called for more subprime employees -- at nearly 2,400, the staff had about 450 more people than at the start of the year.

Article © MortgageDaily.com All Rights Reserved