Commercial banks reported a robust $4.91 billion in mortgage banking earnings during the third quarter of 2011, according to a new analysis of bank call report data by Inside Mortgage Trends. Mortgage banking income was up 52.8 percent from the three months ending in June, reaching the industry’s highest level since the end of 2009. Despite the improvement, year-to-date mortgage banking earnings were still down 4.8 percent from the first nine months of 2010. The surge in mortgage banking earnings resulted from increased loan origination and secondary market activity. Banks reported...(Includes one data chart)