In an effort to get mortgage-backed securities investors comfortable with the upcoming launch of the uniform MBS, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are continuously monitoring their prepayment rates to make sure there’s no divergence between the two, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.The FHFA published its inaugural prepayment report this week, increasing transparency ahead of the launch of the UMBS in June 2019. The report will be released on a quarterly basis. With the UMBS, the FHFA wants to ensure that there’s general alignment on the prepayments and noted that consistency is important to the efficiency and liquidity of the secondary mortgage market.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt said one of the challenges of being in a decade-long conservatorship is the inability to make strategic decisions on everyday operations. And it doesn’t look like that problem will be solved anytime soon. During a Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs hearing this week, he said the decision to relocate Fannie Mae’s headquarters is an example of trying to make decisions for the GSEs amid an uncertain future. “Without looking somewhat down the road, FHFA and the enterprises would both lose their momentum and jeopardize day-to-day success.

Tian Liu, chief economist at Genworth Mortgage Insurance, said homebuilders are starting to increase the supply of homes at somewhat lower price points, which could help increase purchases by first-time buyers.

The biggest factor in the small uptick was the significant growth in the two largest ABS portfolios in the industry...

A senior FHFA official said disputes over private mortgage-insurance pricing likely fall under the jurisdiction of state insurance regulators.

The top four lenders receiving the highest rate of “likes” and lowest rate of “dislikes” from real estate agents were all nonbanks: Fairway Independent, Movement Mortgage, Guild Mortgage and Guaranteed Rate.

Freddie said the strong labor market and years of pent-up interest are increasing demand for purchase mortgages.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency went into more detail this week about the steps it is taking to make sure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prepayment rates are fairly congruent. And when the difference between the GSEs’ prepayment rates spreads beyond two percentage points, it must be reported to the FHFA’s Single Security Governance Committee for an explanation and remedial actions.

Commercial banks and savings institutions held $113.75 billion of non-mortgage ABS in portfolio at the end of March, a scant 0.1 percent increase from the previous quarter, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. [Includes two data charts.]

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has filed a proposed rule with the Securities and Exchange Commission to modify the definition of “agency debt security” to include credit-risk transfers for reporting and compliance purposes.