The average daily trading volume in agency MBS reached $207.8 billion in March, a mere 2.66 percent gain compared to the month prior and a sign that investors are in a holding pattern these days, trying to decipher both the stock market and geopolitical events. According to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, average daily trading volume jumped 9.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago. In January 2017, $229.8 billion in product changed hands daily. Meanwhile, a recent decline in rates means...

Seven marketplace lending securitizations with a total issuance of $3.0 billion came to market during the first quarter of 2017 – a quarterly record, according to a new report by PeerIQ, a New York-based data provider and risk-analysis firm for the peer-to-peer lending industry. Total securitization issuance to date now stands at $18.0 billion, with 80 deals issued so far (48 consumer, 22 student, one mortgage and nine small and medium-sized enterprises) since September 2013, the PeerIQ analysts said. Also, the trend towards rated deals and larger transactions continued...

The Mortgage Bankers Association is sticking with its proposal to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac alive, but with new charters, while inviting other players to compete with the two giants in the securitization of conventional mortgages. The trade group this week proposed a utility-like model for the re-christened government-sponsored enterprises. They would inherit the personnel and systems the GSEs now have, but become limited-purpose, publicly owned securitization businesses under tight government regulation. Other entities could apply...

Blockchain technology could help reduce the compliance costs associated with Regulation AB2, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group and the Chamber of Digital Commerce. The two trade groups recently submitted a comment letter to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in response to FINRA’s report on distributed ledger technology. FINRA, an independent regulator of broker-dealers, is considering the implications of blockchain for the securities industry. Blockchain is...

“Maybe we end up in the exact same spot as the last generation, maybe we end up with Corker-Warner,” said Calabria.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, this week, released more details in conjunction with its GSE reform proposal published earlier this year. Expanding on some of the concepts presented in January, the MBA paper includes more detailed end-state reform recommendations including elaborating on the transition plan. The trade group’s approach for reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac calls...

Despite various rumblings suggesting that a plan may be in the works, the Trump administration appears to have no current plan for reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Speaking on a housing affordability panel sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute earlier this month, Mark Calabria, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief economist, said the administration may even go with the Corker-Warner GSE reform plan put forth by Senators Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA. Calabria, former director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute, got...

And now the obvious questions becomes: where does Ocwen go from here? The company can’t possibly be sold because of all the outstanding lawsuits and “legacy” problems...

The trade group first launched its GSE task force in late 2012 with 17 initial executive members, including Bob Ryan, a Wells Fargo executive who is now the acting deputy director of the division of conservatorship at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The outstanding supply of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae servicing continued to grow during the first quarter of 2017 despite a downturn in new mortgage-backed securities issuance by the three agencies, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. A total of $6.225 trillion of agency single-family MBS was outstanding at the end of March, up 1.4 percent from December 2016. That number does not include agency servicing of whole loans held on the books of Fannie and Freddie, or a smattering of adjustable-rate mortgages in seasoned Freddie securities. Freddie posted...[Includes two data tables]