The Structured Finance Industry Group this week unveiled key performance indicators for deal agents to track in new non-agency mortgage-backed securities. The proposed standards detail 150 measurements for deal agents to monitor. Ocwen Financial reported a net loss of $6.14 million for the third quarter of 2017. The loss would have been worse if not for a one-time tax benefit of $23.2 million related to the release of previously established reserves ... [Includes three briefs]

New issuance of MBS backed by income-property mortgages jumped sharply in the third quarter of 2017, hitting levels not reached in over a decade, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis.

The Structured Finance Industry Group this week unveiled key performance indicators (KPIs) for deal agents to track in new non-agency MBS. The measurements were developed by a group of in-dustry participants to help guide deal agents in protecting MBS investors.

A proposal in the House Republican tax reform bill significantly lowering the corporate tax rate, at first glance, may seem to put mortgage real estate investment trusts at a competitive disadvantage with non-REITs. However, the disparity would remain beneficial for REITs, according to tax experts.

Annaly Capital Management increased its agency MBS holdings by 16.1 percent in the third quarter. Its closest competitor among real estate investment trusts specializing in the space, AGNC In-vestment Corp., pushed up its investment by 13.3 percent.

With uncertainty regarding whether the London Interbank Offered Rate will continue to be pub-lished after 2021, the Federal Reserve is considering establishing an alternative reference rate for indus-try participants.

The special qualified-mortgage treatment for home loans eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises is getting more attention lately as some say that it gives Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac an unfair advantage.

The average daily trading volume in agency MBS totaled $222.5 billion in October, a slight dip from the month prior, but the third best reading of the year, according to figures compiled by the Secu-rities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

There are many unpredictable variables and economic factors outside the control of the Federal Reserve, which makes it hard to project the impact of winding down the U.S. central bank’s historic investment in agency MBS. But economic experts at Fannie Mae are cautiously expressed anticipating greater volatility, an inevitable financial shock and potential changes in the Fed’s strategy as markets evolve.

Correspondent-based lending operations are accounting for a growing share of the FHA and VA home loans pooled in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. In fact, correspondent originations are the only production channel to see year-over-year growth in FHA and VA business through the first nine months of 2017. Retail and wholesale-broker production is down for both FHA and VA loans. Correspondent programs are most dominant in the FHA market, perhaps reflecting a preference among large producers to have recourse to a primary-market lender if the government later finds defects in how the loan was originated. Correspondents accounted for 48.7 percent of FHA loans pooled in Ginnie MBS during the first nine months of the year, up from 43.1 percent in all of 2016. Volume was up 1.7 percent from the ... [Charts]