Credit characteristics continue to vary greatly between the two government-sponsored enterprises in the conventional market and Ginnie Mae. During the first quarter, the average credit score at Fannie Mae was 741.15, slightly below the average 744.73 at Freddie Mac. But the average score for Ginnie business was just 686.91. Purchase mortgages typically have higher credit scores – along with higher debt-to-income ratios – than refinance loans ... [Includes two data charts]

The FHFA said reviews have helped align GSE prepayment speeds in the past few years while helping to make sure MBS investors’ interest are considered in the equation.

Chase is the top contributor to the MBS with a 45.0 percent share, followed by United Shore Financial Services at 16.5 percent and Caliber Home Mortgage at 5.2 percent.

Non-QMs account for 81.1 percent of the dollar volume of the planned MBS while the other loans are for rental properties and exempt from ability-to-repay standards.

The non-qualified mortgage share of originations by banks increased slightly in 2017, according to a survey by the American Bankers Association. The share of banks offering non-QMs also increased.

A key Treasury Department official suggested that issuers of non-agency MBS may someday participate in the common securitization platform being developed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

President Trump this week announced Michael Bright as his choice to lead Ginnie Mae, an agency under the Department of Housing and Urban Development, even as Senate Democrats continued to delay vote on his nominee for FHA commissioner. Bright is currently Ginnie Mae’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, though he has been serving as acting president since Theodore Tozer stepped down on Jan. 20, 2017. Tozer served as Ginnie president under the Obama administration for nearly seven years. Bright joined Ginnie on July 11, 2017. Previously, he served as director for financial markets at the Milken Institute and as senior vice president of BlackRock/PennyMac. During his time with Milken, Bright co-authored a paper with Ed DeMarco, former acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and currently president of the Financial Services Roundtable, which proposed to ...

After an extended period of steady growth in its investment in the residential MBS market, the banking industry changed course in early 2018 and reduced its participation in the market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. [Includes two data charts.]

The volume of prime non-agency MBS issuance is on the rise as investor demand for the product increases. Pricing in the non-agency MBS market for jumbos is rivaling execution levels for holding the loans in portfolio, and some issuers are seeing better returns by placing loans in non-agency MBS instead of delivering them to the government-sponsored enterprises.

The types of investment-property mortgages being included in new non-agency MBS pose more risk to investors than similar mortgages eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises, Fitch Ratings warned this week. [Includes one data chart.]