Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a combined $67.1 billion of single-family MBS during April, a solid 23.6 percent increase from the previous month, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Agency MBS issuance has been in a prolonged downward spiral that started after a modest spurt in production in April 2013, when new issuance hit $153.6 billion, well more than double the volume in April of this year. The upside is that the volume of purchase mortgages coming into the agency market continued to build momentum through the peak home-buying season in 2013. The purchase-mortgage sector has become...[Includes two data charts]

It’s now believed that the legislation will clear the committee, but Majority Leader Harry Reid will not allow it to move any further because of weak support overall.

Non-QM mortgages will exist throughout the credit spectrum, according to Mitch Hochberg, a partner at Fenway Summer and general counsel at Ethos Lending, a start-up wholesale mortgage originator.

Overall, refi loans accounted for 45.7 percent of agency MBS production in the first four months of 2014, compared to 77.2 percent during the same period last year.

Although the pace of blockbuster servicing deals appears to have slowed, the giants of the mortgage-servicing business continued to leak market share in early 2014. Significantly, there is now just one lender with more than $1 trillion in mortgage servicing. Back in the third quarter of 2005, Countrywide Financial became the first company to amass over $1 trillion in mortgage servicing, and Wells Fargo joined the club by the end of that year. Chase Home Finance became a $1 trillion servicer in the fourth quarter of 2008, shortly after Bank of America took over Countrywide and became the first $2 trillion servicer. But BofA dumped...[Includes two data charts]

Fannie Mae reported nice guaranty fee income in first quarter, but as one former GSE executive told us: “Their expenses are out of control.”

It seems that GSE officials, to some degree, are trying to manage future expectations, but one thing is certain: guaranty fee income remains very strong.

PennyMac had 271 approved correspondent sellers at March 31, up from 229 at the end of the fourth quarter.

With $1.811 trillion of mortgage servicing rights on its books at the end of the first quarter, it would take an earthquake to knock Wells Fargo into the humble 12-figure universe.

Despite regulatory "noise," Walter Investment noted that it received approvals to complete servicing transfers during the first quarter of 2014.