New issuance of single-family MBS slowed significantly during the first quarter of 2011 as the refinance boom that fueled a strong finish in 2010 lost momentum. A total of $359.78 billion of single-family MBS were issued during the first three months of this year, according to... [Includes two data charts]

American consumers have their own plan for winding down the government-sponsored enterprises: they’re refinancing less and showing little interest in borrowing to buy a new home. New business volume at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plummeted by 21.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 to... [Includes three data charts]

In what may be an omen of a deeper slide of volume in the months to come, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw their issuance of new mortgage-backed securities drop 21.4 percent in the first quarter of the year from the prior period, the latest data from the Inside Mortgage Finance GSE MarketScope show...[includes one full-page chart]

Private mortgage insurers continued paying MI premiums to captive reinsurance entities sponsored by mortgage lenders in 2010, but the payment flow declined further in a business arrangement that is gradually winding down. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of annual private MI regulatory filings reveals... [Includes one data chart and one graph]

Standard & Poor’s maintained its ranking as the top rating service in the MBS and ABS market in 2010, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. S&P rated 78 percent of the non-agency MBS issued last year, up sharply from its 51 percent share back in 2009. While total non-agency MBS production rose by just 5 percent in 2010, S&P’s business increased 63 percent, the largest increase in... [Includes one data chart]

Banks and other major providers of home-equity financing continued to back away from the market in the final months of 2010 while performance trends generally weakened, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of call report data. Banks, thrifts and credit unions held...[Includes two data charts]

The Mortgage Bankers Association has announced David Stevens, currently the assistant secretary for housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and commissioner of the FHA, will take over as MBA president and chief executive officer after John Courson leaves the association June 1. The AARP filed...

Bureau of Consumer Financial ProtectionTaking Consumer Complaints. The BCFP’s implementation team is seeking comment on receiving and processing consumer complaints, which is one the fledgling agency’s functions when it goes fully operational as scheduled on July 21. The implementation team, which is...

Virginia. The state assembly passed legislation on March 15 expanding the acceptance of electronic signatures in the state. The new law provides that financial disclosure forms, lobbyist registration statements and notary applications for recommission may be signed...

Mortgage lenders may be given a free hand in structuring their retained risk, although how they should do it remains unclear. Regulators are reportedly close to giving lenders more elbow room on risk retention, which may come up for discussion next week when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s board of directors holds...