The 25 largest banks held $1.15 trillion in MBS at the end of June, according to an Inside MBS & ABS analysis of Federal Reserve data.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac risk-sharing transactions have gained steam in the first half of 2015 with the GSEs issuing $7.04 billion through the end of June, a 62.9 percent increase over the first half of last year. Since the credit-risk transfer program launched in July 2013, the two government-sponsored enterprises have sold $19.61 billion of CRT bonds to a growing universe of investors. The CRT bonds transferred a portion of the credit risk on some $704.45 billion of single-family MBS. In addition, Fannie and Freddie have purchased...

If the pace continues over the second half of the year – and strong consumer demand for apartments suggests it will – 2015 would become the best year ever in agency multifamily MBS.

Serious money continues to plow into non-agency mortgage lending. Meanwhile, Altisource hires Ginnie Mae's man on the hill...

Freddie Mac priced a risk-sharing transaction this week that’s structured much like a non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security that has the advantage of the government-sponsored enterprise’s guaranty and oversight of servicing practices. Freddie Mac Whole Loan Securities Trust, Series 2015 SC01, will include $278 million in senior certificates guaranteed by Freddie and approximately $23 million in unguaranteed subordinate certificates. The deal is backed by ...

Most mortgage origination indicators pointed higher. Notably, FHA endorsements were up an estimated 61.3 percent from the first quarter…

Of the 40, just two firms suffered a sequential volume decline. You’ll have to see IMF to find out which ones.

The mortgage market cranked up new originations significantly during the second quarter of 2015, lifting production to its highest level in nearly two years, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Lenders produced an estimated $445 billion of first-lien single-family mortgages during the second quarter, an increase of 23.6 percent over the first three months of 2015. It marked the strongest origination volume since the second quarter of 2013, when the industry was in the middle of a refinance boom that generated over $2 trillion in new production over a 12-month period. The party this time around doesn’t look...[Includes two data tables]

Several large servicing portfolios of $1 billion or more hit the market in the past few weeks, but dealmakers and investors continue to wonder about the largest prize of them all: RoundPoint Mortgage, Charlotte, NC, which owns roughly $52.18 billion of receivables and ranks among the top 25. Investment banking officials who claim to have knowledge of the RoundPoint situation maintain that its owner, The Tavistock Group, is hell-bent on selling the nonbank, but as far as coming to final terms with a buyer, any buyer, that’s a different matter. It’s...

Republican congressional leadership commemorated the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act this week by bashing the massive legislation. But there was not a single mention of making any changes to the mortgage-related provisions in the law. However, Republican leaders of the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee demonstrated varying degrees of optimism about enacting broader changes to the controversial law. During a Dodd-Frank discussion forum early this week at the American Enterprise Institute, HFSC Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, in response to a question about the political prospects for reform, said...