At Santander Bank, commitments improved by 2.1 percent to $2.4 billion while outstandings jumped 33.3 percent to $1.6 billion.

“Are there bargain hunters out there?” asked one servicing executive. “To some extent, yes.”

Despite shying away from FHA production, Wells Fargo remained a top Ginnie issuer, closing August with $3.83 billion and ranking third overall.

Meanwhile, while the jumbo securitization rate during the quarter was a paltry 0.8 percent…

It's hard out there for a hedge fund (suing the government regarding the GSEs)...

Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie issued a combined $138.25 billion of single-family MBS in August, their strongest aggregate monthly output since July 2013.

Issuance of single-family agency MBS rose 6.9 percent from July to August, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a combined $138.25 billion of single-family MBS last month, their strongest aggregate monthly output since July 2013. Agency production volume has risen for six straight months since bottoming out in February of this year. Although the purchase-mortgage market has gotten most of the attention in recent months, it was...[Includes two data tables]

Lone Star Funds is preparing to issue a $216.97 million MBS backed by newly originated nonprime mortgages, according to presale reports published this week. The deal will help the market for new nonprime MBS outpace issuance of jumbo MBS, at least momentarily. Last month, Deephaven Mortgage issued a $154.33 million MBS backed by new nonprime mortgages and Angel Oak Capital Advisors issued a $132.65 million MBS, neither of which received credit ratings. Lone Star’s COLT 2016-2 is scheduled to close next week. Two jumbo MBS were issued...

Investor demand for nonprime whole loans is increasing – which is a good thing for primary market originators – but will it create problems for firms that want to issue securities? In some quarters, there’s a concern that if enough investors appear, it will increase whole-loan prices, making securitization less economical and therefore more difficult. “We’re definitely seeing...

While many industry experts say Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should explore deeper mortgage insurance coverage as an alternative form of credit-risk sharing, some say the role of private MIs is overrated. The Urban Institute recently published a paper advocating a broadening of the credit-risk transfer programs at the two government-sponsored enterprises to include private MI coverage down to the 50 percent loan-to-value ratio. The think tank also encouraged Fannie and Freddie to create a more transparent lender recourse program and to diversify their highly successful debt note CRT programs to provide investors more offerings with risk segmented by LTV ratio and credit scores. Although the Mortgage Bankers Association and U.S. Mortgage Insurers, the trade group that represents private MIs, have stumped...