OTS releases data
By MortgageDaily.com staff
2/21/2003

The thrift industry set a loan origination record during the fourth quarter and the year, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) announced. The industry also experienced an increase in troubled assets during the year, however.

Thrift mortgage originations in the fourth quarter totaled $177.4 billion, and they finished the year at $536.0 billion. One-to-four family originations took up the bulk of that, setting their own record of $160 billion during the fourth quarter and $472 billion in 2002.

These production records were due to refinancing activity jumping about 45% during the year and 55% in the fourth quarter, the OTS said.

"These last few years have generally been great years to be in the thrift business," said OTS director James E. Gilleran. "Present indications are that the industry will achieve favorable results in the first quarter of 2003, aided by the current low interest rate environment which has led to record refinancing."

Thrift assets totaled more than $1 trillion during the year, up from $978 billion in 2001. The last time the industry's assets topped $1 trillion was in 1990, the OTS said.

The number of troubled assets, however, have slightly increased, but the number of problem thrifts have decreased from 16 to 14. A call from OTS was not readily returned to answer which thrifts are considered "problem."

In addition to other types of loans, delinquencies among one-to-four family home loans increased during the fourth quarter to 0.93% from 0.79% in the third quarter, Gilleran said in a statement. One-to-four family homes make up almost 48% of the industry's total assets.

The number of thrifts by 2002's end totaled 974. This is down from 1,019 the year before, but that mainly was due to mergers and acquisitions, the OTS said. One thrift failure occurred in 2002, but that was because of fraud at an institution with assets totaling $51.6 million.

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