Commercial banks and thrifts earned $3.54 billion from their mortgage-banking activities during the fourth quarter of 2014, down 23.9 percent from the previous quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. That was only slightly better than the $3.35 billion banks earned during the first quarter of 2014. For the year, the industry generated $16.41 billion in mortgage-banking income, down 36.3 percent from 2013. Last year was the second-worst year since the financial crisis in 2008; the worst was 2011, when Bank of America nearly sank the ship. BofA was...[Includes one data chart]