nbhatia@imfpubs.com

Banks and thrifts valued their mortgage servicing rights at a slightly higher level at the end of June than at the end of March, even as the industry continued to retreat from the business.

A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of bank call reports found that the sector handled servicing on $2.790 trillion of mortgages for other investors at the end of June, mostly tied to agency mortgage-backed securities.

That was down $2.38 billion from March and was the lowest servicing-for-others total since the fourth quarter of 2005, when banks and thrifts handled servicing on $2.631 trillion of home loans for others.

JPMorgan Chase ranked first in servicing for others at the end of June, though it reduced its holdings by $3.58 billion in the second quarter.

For more details, see the latest issue of Inside Mortgage Trends.