Banks and thrifts held a record $1.491 trillion of residential MBS in portfolio as of the end of June, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking of call report data. That was up 1.6 percent from the end of the second quarter and marked the fourth consecutive period of growth in the industry’s MBS holdings. Banks and thrifts owned about 22.8 percent of the estimated $6.535 trillion of MBS outstanding at the end of the second quarter. All the growth came in investments in agency structured finance transactions, mostly REMICs. Bank and thrift holdings of agency REMICs jumped 8.6 percent in the second quarter to $459.9 billion, or 30.8 percent of... [Includes two data charts]